Elon Lages Lima (July 9, 1929 – May 7, 2017) was a Brazilian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

whose research concerned

differential topology In mathematics, differential topology is the field dealing with the topological properties and smooth properties of smooth manifolds. In this sense differential topology is distinct from the closely related field of differential geometry, which ...

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up t ...

, and

differential geometry Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...

. Lima was an influential figure in the development of mathematics in Brazil. Lima was professor emeritus at

Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada The Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA; en, National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics) is widely considered to be the foremost research and educational institution of Brazil in the area of mathematics. It is loc ...

of which he was the director during three separate periods. Lima has been twice recipient of the

Prêmio Jabuti The Prêmio Jabuti (the "Tortoise Prize") is the most traditional literary award in Brazil, given by the Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL). It was conceived by Edgard Cavalheiro in 1959 when he presided over the CBL, with the interest of rewarding autho ...

from the '' Câmara Brasileira do Livro'', for his textbooks ''Espaços Métricos'' and ''Álgebra Linear'', and of the Anísio Teixeira Prize from the Ministry of Education and Sports. His mathematical style was heavily influenced by Bourbaki's.

Biography

He began his career as a high school teacher in

Fortaleza Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

. Lima graduated with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

from the

Universidade do Brasil The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil (UFRJ; pt, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro or ') is a public research university located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the ...

(today

UFRJ The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil (UFRJ; pt, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro or ') is a public university, public research university located in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ...

) in 1953. He obtained his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1958 from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

with Edwin Henry Spanier as advisor. He is a former

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, and holds memberships in the ''

Academia Brasileira de Ciências The Brazilian Academy of Sciences ( pt, italic=yes, Academia Brasileira de Ciências or ''ABC'') is the national academy of Brazil. It is headquartered in the city of Rio de Janeiro and was founded on May 3, 1916. Publications It publishes a lar ...

'' (Brazilian Academy of Sciences) and the TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. He is a professor

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

of the

Universidade Federal do Ceará The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

and of the

University of Brasília The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...

. He was a member of the Upper Board of FAPERJ from 1987 to 1991. He was also a member of the National Board of Education. He wrote over thirty books in

, some of which were intended for

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

teachers. Between 1990 and 1995, he coordinated the IMPA-VITAE project, which held skills improvement courses for mathematics teachers in eleven cities from eight states throughout Brazil. He received the ''grã-cruz'' ("Great Cross") of the '' Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico'' ("National Order of Scientific Merit") of Brazil.

Selected publications

*Lima, E. L. (1964).
Common singularities of commuting vector fields on 2-manifolds
. ''

Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici The ''Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal in mathematics. The Swiss Mathematical Society started the journal in 1929 after a meeting in May of the previous year. The Swiss Mathematical Society sti ...

''. vol. 39, pp. 97–110. *Lima, E. L. (1965).
Commuting vector fields on S3
. ''

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as the ...

''. vol. 81, pp. 70–88. * do Carmo, M. and Lima, E. L. (1969).
Isometric immersions with semi-definite second quadratic forms
. ''

Archiv der Mathematik '' Archiv der Mathematik'' is a peer-reviewed mathematics journal published by Springer, established in 1948. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

'' vol. 20, pp. 173–175. *Lima, E. L. (1987).
Orientability of smooth hypersurfaces and the Jordan-Brouwer separation theorem
. ''Expositiones Mathematicae''. vol. 5, pp. 283–286.

Notes

Silva, C. P. . "Sobre o início e consolidação da pesquisa matemática no Brasil, Parte 2", Revista Brasileira de História da Matemática (RBHM), Vol. 6, n. 12, p. 165-196, 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lima, Elon Lages 1929 births 2017 deaths Brazilian educators People from Maceió University of Chicago alumni Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil) Topologists Textbook writers Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada researchers Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences 21st-century Brazilian mathematicians 20th-century Brazilian mathematicians 20th-century Brazilian writers 20th-century Brazilian educators 21st-century Brazilian educators 21st-century Brazilian writers Brazilian non-fiction writers

Biography

Selected publications

See also

Notes