Loïc Merel (born 13 August 1965) is a French
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 ...
. His research interests include
modular forms and
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 integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mat ...
.
Career
Born in
Carhaix-Plouguer
Carhaix-Plouguer (; br, Karaez-Plougêr ), commonly known as just Carhaix (), is a commune in the French department of Finistère, region of Brittany, France.[Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...]
, Merel became a student at the
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, S ...
. He finished 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 ''li ...
at
Pierre and Marie Curie University under supervision of
Joseph Oesterlé
Joseph Oesterlé (born 1954) is a French mathematician who, along with David Masser, formulated the ''abc'' conjecture which has been called "the most important unsolved problem in diophantine analysis
In mathematics, a Diophantine equation ...
in 1993. His thesis on modular symbols took inspiration from the work of
Yuri Manin
Yuri Ivanovich Manin (russian: Ю́рий Ива́нович Ма́нин; born 16 February 1937) is a Russian mathematician, known for work in algebraic geometry and diophantine geometry, and many expository works ranging from mathematical log ...
and
Barry Mazur from the 1970s. In 1996, Merel proved the
torsion conjecture for elliptic curves over any number field (which was only known for number fields of degree up to 8 at the time). In recognition of his achievement, in 1998 he was an Invited Speaker of the
International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.
Awards
Merel has received numerous awards, including the
EMS Prize
The European Mathematical Society (EMS) is a European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. Its members are different mathematical societies in Europe, academic institutions and individual mathematicians. The current ...
(1996), the
Blumenthal Award {{Short description, Award of the American Mathematical Society
The Blumenthal Award was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1993 in memory of Leonard M. and Eleanor B. Blumenthal.
The award was presented to the individual deemed to h ...
(1997) for the advancement of research in pure mathematics,
and the (1998) of the
French Academy of Sciences.
References
External links
Website at Paris Diderot University
1965 births
Living people
École Normale Supérieure alumni
People from Finistère
21st-century French mathematicians
University of Paris alumni
Scientists from Brittany
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