Person: Mañé, Ricardo
Ricardo Mañé was an outstanding Uruguayan mathematician, famed for his work in dynamical systems, especially for proving the Stability Conjecture. He worked for his whole career at the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Edelmiro Mañé was a professor of thermodynamics in the Faculty of Engineering in the Universidad de la Republica at Montevideo and wrote the book Termodinámica: ensayo de una puesta a punto de la termidonámica macroscópica Ⓣ(Thermodynamics: an essay of an overview of macroscopic thermodynamics) (1974).
- Juan Andrés Ramírez (born 1947), was Ricardo Mañé's cousin.
- It was in Montevideo that Ricardo was brought up and attended schools.
- Mañé was an outstanding student and in 1969, while still an undergraduate, he became an assistant in mathematics and began studying dynamical systems advised by Lewowicz.
- Near the end of 1970, Palis received a long letter from Ricardo Mañé, who was totally unknown to him, on dynamical systems.
- This is how Ricardo Mañé presented himself, with an immense letter, not only enunciating these great theorems, but also giving sketches of the proofs.
- When Palis told him about it, Lewowicz was angry that Mañé, still an undergraduate, had the audacity to send such a letter to a leading expert on the topic, and moreover had done it without his knowledge.
- After receiving Mañé's letter, they discussed inviting him to speak at this conference.
- Mañé was also considering going to New York University and studying there for his Ph.D. advised by Jurgen Moser.
- After completing his doctorate, in 1973 Mañé was appointed as an assistant professor at the IMPA in Rio de Janeiro.
- In collaboration with Paulo Sad and Denis Sullivan, Mañé wrote the paper On the dynamics of rational maps published in 1983.
- Mañé attended the 1982 International Congress of Mathematicians held in Warsaw in August 1983.
- In 1984 Mañé made a research visit to Paris, France, to work with Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, a leading expert on dynamical systems.
- Yoccoz was a close friend of Jacob Palis and had been very excited when told about the Mané-Sad-Sullivan theorem, which had led to Mañé's visit to Paris.
- Mañé was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, awarded in 1985.
- Mañé's colleagues believed that his outstanding contributions deserved a Fields Medal in 1986 when only three Fields Medals were awarded.
- It could have been Ricardo Mañé, but, producing mathematics on the fringes of the Atlantic Forest, on the fringes of the great research centres and at a time when information circulation was so less than today, it would be surprising if anyone remembered him.
- It was attended by around 200 students and Mañé gave the course on Ergodic Theory with Marcelo Viana helping him by running the exercise classes.
- Mañé attended the Congress and delivered the lecture Ergodic variational methods: new techniques and new problems.
- Although Mañé worked in Brazil throughout his career, he was not eligible for a fellowship of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since he was not a Brazilian citizen.
- Mañé died before the award ceremony for The World Academy of Sciences Prize and the prize was received by one of his colleagues.
- Juan Andrés Ramírez was one of four candidates in the election and Mañé travelled to Montevideo to vote for his cousin.
- Mañé remained in Montevideo and gave a seminar at the Mathematics Centre in the middle of December.
- There are two rather different accounts of Mañé's illness and we will give both.
- Many afternoons we would all find ourselves on the pavement outside his house, waiting for the regular interview that Ricardo had with a priest to finish.
- On 8 March 1995, Mañé was admitted to the Spanish sanatorium on Garibaldi street, where he continued to write his extensive notes.
- Ricardo found that freedom in Brazil.
Born 14 January 1948, Montevideo, Uruguay. Died 9 March 1995, Montevideo, Uruguay.
View full biography at [MacTutor](https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Mane/
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
