Graeme Bryce Segal FRS (born 21 December 1941) is an Australian

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 ...

, and professor at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Biography

Segal was educated at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

, where he received his

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

degree in 1961. He went on to receive his

D.Phil. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1967 from

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...

; his thesis, written under the supervision of

Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded th ...

, was titled ''Equivariant K-theory''. His thesis was in the area of equivariant

K-theory In mathematics, K-theory is, roughly speaking, the study of a ring generated by vector bundles over a topological space or scheme. In algebraic topology, it is a cohomology theory known as topological K-theory. In algebra and algebraic geometr ...

. The Atiyah–Segal completion theorem in that subject was a major motivation for the Segal conjecture, which he formulated. He has made many other contributions to homotopy theory in the past four decades, including an approach to infinite loop spaces. He was also a pioneer of

elliptic cohomology In mathematics, elliptic cohomology is a cohomology theory in the sense of algebraic topology. It is related to elliptic curves and modular forms. History and motivation Historically, elliptic cohomology arose from the study of elliptic genera. ...

, which is related to his interest in

topological quantum field theory In gauge theory and mathematical physics, a topological quantum field theory (or topological field theory or TQFT) is a quantum field theory which computes topological invariants. Although TQFTs were invented by physicists, they are also of mathe ...

. Segal was an Invited Speaker at the ICM in 1970 in Nice and in 1990 in Kyoto. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1982 and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was awarded the

Sylvester Medal The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the Royal Society (London) for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize. It was named in honour of James Joseph Sylvester, the Savilian Professor of Geometry a ...

by the Royal Society in 2010. He was

Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry The Lowndean chair of Astronomy and Geometry is one of the two major Professorships in Astronomy (alongside the Plumian Professorship) and a major Professorship in Mathematics at Cambridge University. It was founded in 1749 by Thomas Lowndes, an ...

from 1990 to 1999. Segal was elected the President of the London Mathematical Society in 2011. He is married to writer,

Marina Warner Dame Marina Sarah Warner, (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publicat ...

. They live in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Books

* ''Loop Groups'' (Oxford Mathematical Monographs). New ed. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, (with Andrew Pressley). * ''Lectures on Lie groups and Lie algebras'' (London Mathematical Society Student texts Vol. 32). 5th ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, (with Ian G. Macdonald and Roger Carter).

References

External links

Dr Graeme Segal FRS
,

Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford The Mathematical Institute is the mathematics department at the University of Oxford in England. It is one of the nine departments of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. The institute includes both pure and appl ...

*
Topology, Geometry and Quantum Field Theory
Proceedings of the 2002 Oxford Symposium in Honour of the 60th Birthday of Graeme Segal. 1942 births Living people University of Sydney alumni Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Topologists Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Cambridge mathematicians Fellows of the Royal Society Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Lowndean Professors of Astronomy and Geometry Presidents of the London Mathematical Society {{UK-mathematician-stub