French mathematical seminars have been an important type of institution combining research and exposition, active since the beginning of the twentieth century.
From 1909 to 1937, the
Séminaire Hadamard gathered many participants (f. i.
André Weil) around the presentation of international research papers and work in progress. The
Séminaire Julia focussed on yearly themes and impulsed the Bourbaki movement. The
Séminaire Nicolas Bourbaki
The Séminaire Nicolas Bourbaki (Bourbaki Seminar) is a series of seminars (in fact public lectures with printed notes distributed) that has been held in Paris since 1948. It is one of the major institutions of contemporary mathematics, and a baro ...
is the most famous, but is atypical in a number of ways: it attempts to cover, if selectively, the whole of
pure mathematics
Pure mathematics is the study of mathematical concepts independently of any application outside mathematics. These concepts may originate in real-world concerns, and the results obtained may later turn out to be useful for practical applications, ...
, and its talks are now, by convention, reports and surveys on research by someone not directly involved. More standard is a working group organised around a specialist area, with research talks given and written up "from the horse's mouth".
Historically speaking, the
Séminaire Cartan of the late 1940s and early 1950s, around
Henri Cartan, was one of the most influential. Publication in those days was by means of the duplicated ''exemplaire'' (limited distribution and not peer-reviewed). The seminar model was tested, almost to destruction, by the SGA series of
Alexander Grothendieck.
Notable seminars
* Séminaire Bourbaki, still current, general;
Nicolas Bourbaki
Nicolas Bourbaki () is the collective pseudonym of a group of mathematicians, predominantly French alumni of the École normale supérieure (Paris), École normale supérieure - PSL (ENS). Founded in 1934–1935, the Bourbaki group originally in ...
* Séminaire Brelot-Choquet-Deny (from 1957),
potential theory
In mathematics and mathematical physics, potential theory is the study of harmonic functions.
The term "potential theory" was coined in 19th-century physics when it was realized that two fundamental forces of nature known at the time, namely gravi ...
;
Marcel Brelot,
Gustave Choquet,
Jacques Deny
Jacques Deny (; 22 October 1916 – 1 January 2016) was a French mathematician. He made notable contributions to the field of analysis, in particular potential theory
In mathematics and mathematical physics, potential theory is the study of ...
* Séminaire Cartan,
homological algebra
Homological algebra is the branch of mathematics that studies homology (mathematics), homology in a general algebraic setting. It is a relatively young discipline, whose origins can be traced to investigations in combinatorial topology (a precurs ...
,
sheaf theory
In mathematics, a sheaf is a tool for systematically tracking data (such as sets, abelian groups, rings) attached to the open sets of a topological space and defined locally with regard to them. For example, for each open set, the data could ...
,
several complex variables
The theory of functions of several complex variables is the branch of mathematics dealing with complex-valued functions. The name of the field dealing with the properties of function of several complex variables is called several complex variable ...
;
Henri Cartan and his students
* Séminaire Châtelet-Dubreil, Dubreil, Dubreil-Pisot, from 1951,
abstract algebra
In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures. Algebraic structures include groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, lattices, and algebras over a field. The term ''a ...
* Séminaire Chevalley,
algebraic geometry
Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...
, late 1950s
* Séminaire Delange-Pisot, then Delange-Pisot-Poitou, from 1959,
S´eminaire Delange-Pisot
/ref> number theory
Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777â ...
* Séminaire Ehresmann, 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 ...
and category theory
Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations that was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Nowadays, cate ...
; Charles Ehresmann
* Séminaire Grothendieck, from 1957, became Grothendieck's Séminaire de Géométrie Algébrique
* Séminaire Janet, differential equation
In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...
s
* Séminaire Kahane
* Séminaire Lelong, several complex variables
The theory of functions of several complex variables is the branch of mathematics dealing with complex-valued functions. The name of the field dealing with the properties of function of several complex variables is called several complex variable ...
* Séminaire Schwartz, functional analysis
Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (e.g. Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics)#Defini ...
; Laurent Schwartz
Laurent-Moïse Schwartz (; 5 March 1915 – 4 July 2002) was a French mathematician. He pioneered the theory of distributions, which gives a well-defined meaning to objects such as the Dirac delta function. He was awarded the Fields Medal in ...
See also
References
External links
2003 list of ongoing seminars
Numdam (seminars)
History of mathematics
{{France-stub