Person: Iyanaga, Shokichi
Shokichi Iyanaga was a Japanese mathematician who published some papers in topology, functional analysis, and geometry.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- In his second year of study Iyanaga took further courses by Takagi which developed group theory, representation theory, Galois theory, and algebraic number theory.
- Although it was this latter topic which would eventually attract Iyanaga, at this stage of his undergraduate career he was attracted to differential equations.
- Iyanaga posed the question of finding some intuitive or geometrical reasons why ...
- Iyanaga's paper was so good that Yosiye had it published in the Japanese Journal of Mathematics.
- Surprisingly Iyanaga wrote a second paper while in his second undergraduate year.
- Both Iyanaga's two papers appeared in print in 1928.
- In his third undergraduate year Iyanaga was allowed to take part in Takagi's seminar on class field theory.
- A question by Takagi led Iyanaga to prove a result which further led to his first paper on class field theory (and his third published paper while he was an undergraduate).
- Graduating in 1929, Iyanaga remained at Tokyo University where he worked under Takagi for his doctorate.
- For example K Shoda, who was a student of Takagi, had studied with Schur in Berlin and with Emmy Noether in Göttingen, and returned to Japan around the time that Iyanaga began his graduate studies.
- Most of the graduate students from Tokyo went to study in Germany but Iyanaga decided to go to France as well as Germany.
- Takagi came over to Europe for this Congress (he was vice-President) and met up with Iyanaga who had gone from Hamburg to Zürich for the Congress.
- Iyanaga went to Paris in 1932 where he met up with Chevalley whom he had got to know well while in Hamburg.
- Iyanaga did, for various reasons, little original research from this time on.
- Iyanaga managed to solve a question of Artin on generalising the principal ideal theorem and this was published in 1939.
- Iyanaga was promoted to Professor at Tokyo University in 1942 but by this time Japan had entered World War II.
- Iyanaga joined the Science Council of Japan in 1947.
- In 1965 Iyanaga became Dean of the faculty of Science at Tokyo University.
- One important role which Iyanaga had that we have not yet mentioned was that of President of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction from 1975 to 1978.
- Iyanaga received honours such as being awarded the Rising Sun from Japan in 1976, being elected a member of the Japan Academy of Science in 1978, and receiving the Order of Legion d'Honneur from France in 1980.
Born 2 April 1906, Tokyo, Japan. Died 1 June 2006, Tokyo, Japan.
View full biography at MacTutor
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Origin Japan
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
