André Lichnerowicz

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André Lichnerowicz (January 21, 1915 - December 11, 1998) was a noted French mathematical physicist of Polish descent.

His father fought in Polish resistance against the Prussians. His mother was a descendant of paper makers, and one of the first women to get the aggregation in mathematics. Andre attended the Ecole Normale Supérieure in rue d'Ulm, gaining aggregation in 1936. He joined the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique.

Lichnerowicz studied differential geometry under Élie Cartan. His doctoral dissertation, completed in 1939 under the supervision of Georges Darmois, concerned what are now called the Lichnerowicz matching conditions in general relativity.

His academic career began under the cloud of occupation. He taught at the University of Strasbourg, which was moved to Clermont Ferrand and only returned to Strasbourg in 1945, where he taught until 1949. From 1949-1952 he taught at the University of Paris. In 1952 he was appointed to the Collège de France, where he taught until his retirement in 1986. He was made a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1963.

His students included Thierry Aubin, Marcel Berger, Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, and Thibauld Damour.

While pursuing an active research career, Lichnerowicz made time for pedagogy, and is credited with carrying out various required reforms in higher education in postwar France.

Works in English translation:

Elements of Tensor Calculus , John Wiley and Sons, 1962.

Relativistic Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics, W. A. Benjamin, 1967.

Linear Algebra and Analysis' Holden Day, 1967.

Geometry of Groups of Transformations, Leyden: Noordhoff, [1958] 1976.

Global Theory of Connection and Holonomy Groups Leyden: Noordhoff, [1955] 1976.

Magnetohydrodynamics: Waves and Shock Waves in Curved Space-Time Kluwer, Springer 1994 (ISBN: 0792328051)

with Alexandre Favre, Henri Guitton, and Jean Guitton, Chaos and Determinism, Johns Hopklins, 1995.

with Alain Connes, and Marco Schutzenberger, Triangle of Thoughts, Amer. Math. Soc., 2000.

Tribute:

Cahen, M.; Lichnerowicz, Andre; Flato, M., eds., Differential Geometry and Relativity: A Volume in Honour of Andre Lichnerowicz on His 60th Birthday, Reidel, 1976. (ISBN: 9027707456)

[edit] References

Berger, Marcel; & Bourguignon, Jean-Pierre; & Choquet-Bruhat, Yvonne; & Marle, Charles-Michel; & Revuz, André (December 1999). "André Lichnerowicz (1915-1998)". Notices of the American Mathematical Society 46: 1387-1396..