Gilles Pisier

Gilles Pisier
Born 18 November 1950 (1950-11-18) (age 61)
Nouméa, New Caledonia
Nationality  France
Fields Mathematics
Institutions Pierre and Marie Curie University, Texas A&M University
Alma mater Paris Diderot University
Doctoral advisor Laurent Schwartz
Doctoral students Damien Lamberton
Thierry Coulhon
Alain Pajor
Known for Contributions to functional analysis, probability theory, harmonic analysis, operator theory
Notable awards Ostrowski Prize (1997)
Salem Prize (1979)

Gilles I. Pisier (born 18 November 1950) is a Professor of Mathematics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University and a Distinguished Professor and A.G. and M.E. Owen Chair of Mathematics at the Texas A&M University.[1][2] He is known for his contributions to several fields of mathematics, including functional analysis, probability theory, harmonic analysis, and operator theory. He has also made fundamental contributions to the theory of C*-algebras.[3] Gilles is the younger brother of French actress Marie-France Pisier.

Contents

Research

Pisier has obtained many fundamental results in various parts of mathematical analysis.

Geometry of Banach spaces

In the "local theory of Banach spaces", Pisier and Bernard Maurey developed the theory of Rademacher type, following its use in probability theory by J. Hoffman–Jorgensen and in the characterization of Hilbert spaces among Banach spaces by S. Kwapien. Using probability in vector spaces, Pisier proved that super-reflexive Banach spaces can be renormed with the modulus of uniform convexity having "power type".[4][5] His work (with Per Enflo and Joram Lindenstrauss) on the "three–space problem" influenced the work on quasi–normed spaces by Nigel Kalton.

Operator theory

Pisier transformed the area of operator spaces. In the 1990s, he solved two long-standing open problems. In the theory of C*-algebras, he solved, jointly with Marius Junge, the problem of the uniqueness of C* -norms on the tensor product of two copies of B(H), the bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space H. He and Junge were able to produce two such tensor norms that are nonequivalent.[3] In 1997, he constructed an operator that was polynomially bounded but not similar to a contraction, answering a famous question of Paul Halmos.

Awards

In 1997, Pisier received the Ostrowski Prize for this work. He is also a recipient of the Grands Prix de l'Academie des Sciences de Paris in 1992 and the Salem Prize in 1979.[6]

Books

Pisier has authored several books and monographs in the fields of functional analysis, harmonic analysis, and operator theory. Among them are:

References

  1. ^ "Gilles Pisier". http://www.math.jussieu.fr/~pisier. Retrieved 14 April 2010. 
  2. ^ "Gilles Pisier". Texas A&M University. http://www.math.tamu.edu/directory/formalpg.php?user=pisier. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
  3. ^ a b "Nesterenko and Pisier Share Ostrowski Prize". American Mathematical Society. August 1998. http://www.ams.org/notices/199807/comm-ostrowski.pdf. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
  4. ^ Beauzamy, Bernard (1985 [1982]). Introduction to Banach Spaces and their Geometry (Second revised ed.). North-Holland. ISBN 0444864164. MR889253. 
  5. ^ Pisier, Gilles (1975). "Martingales with values in uniformly convex spaces". Israel J. Math. 20 (3–4): 326–350. doi:10.1007/BF02760337. MR394135. http://www.springerlink.com/content/y0176lm220h756k6. 
  6. ^ "UCLA Distinguished Lecturers". University of California. http://www.math.ucla.edu/dls/2001/pisier.html. Retrieved 13 March 2010. 

External links