Valentin Poénaru

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Valentin Poénaru is a Professor of Mathematics at Université de Paris-Sud. He specializes in low-dimensional topology.

Born in Romania, he did his undergraduate studies at the University of Bucharest. In 1962, he was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm, Sweden. While at the congress, Poénaru defected, subsequently leaving for France. He defended his Thèse d'État at the University of Paris on March 23, 1963. His dissertation topic was Sur les variétés tridimensionnelles ayant le type d'homotopie de la sphère S₃, and was written under the supervision of Charles Ehresmann. After that, he went to the United States, spending four years at Harvard University and Princeton University. In 1967, he returned to France.

Poénaru has worked for several decades on a proof of the Poincaré conjecture, making a number of related breakthroughs. His first attempt at proving the conjecture dates from 1957. He has described his general approach over the years in different papers and conferences. On December 19, 2006, he posted a preprint to the arXiv, claiming to have finally completed the details of his approach and proven the conjecture.

[edit] See also

Poénaru conjecture

[edit] References

Valentin Poénaru, On the 3-Dimensional Poincaré Conjecture and the 4-Dimensional Smooth Schoenflies Problem, arXiv:math.GT/0612554
David Gabai, Valentin Poenaru's program for the Poincaré conjecture. Geometry, topology, & physics, 139--166, Conf. Proc. Lecture Notes Geom. Topology, IV, Int. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995.
[1] Valentin Poénaru, Sur les variétés tridimensionnelles ayant le type d'homotopie de la sphère S₃, Séminaire Ehresmann, Topologie et géométrie différentielle, 6 (1964), Exposé No. 1, 67 p.
Valentin Poénaru, Produits cartésiens de variétés différentielles par un disque, 1963 Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians (Stockholm, 1962), pp. 481--489, Mittag-Leffler Institute, Djursholm.

"He was a very likeable man and always astounded people with his Bravery." say many people