Michèle Audin (
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, 3 January, 1954) is a French mathematician, writer, and a former professor. She has worked as a professor at the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...
, the
University of Paris-Saclay
Paris-Saclay University (french: Université Paris-Saclay) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 prestigious universities that emerged from the division of the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne. ...
and most recently at the
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
The French university traces its history to the ea ...
, where she performed research notably in the area of
symplectic geometry
Symplectic geometry is a branch of differential geometry and differential topology that studies symplectic manifolds; that is, differentiable manifolds equipped with a closed differential form, closed, nondegenerate form, nondegenerate different ...
.
Biography
Michéle Audin is the daughter of mathematician
Maurice Audin
Maurice Audin (14 February 1932 – c. 21 June 1957) was a renowned French mathematics assistant at the University of Algiers, a member of the Algerian Communist Party and an activist in the anticolonialist cause, who died under torture by the Fr ...
and mathematics teacher , both
pied-noirs
The ''Pieds-Noirs'' (; ; ''Pied-Noir''), are the people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962; the vast majority of whom departed for mainland France as soon as Alg ...
and political activists. While she was a child, her father died under torture in June 1957 in
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, after being arrested by General
Jacques Massu
Jacques Émile Massu (; 5 May 1908 – 26 October 2002) was a French general who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War, the Algerian War and the Suez crisis. He led French troops in the Battle of Algiers, first supporting and later ...
's paratroopers.
She studied at
École normale supérieure de jeunes filles
The ''École normale supérieure de jeunes filles'' (also, ''École normale supérieure de Sèvres'') was a French institute of higher education, in Sèvres, now a commune in the suburbs of Paris. The school educated girls only, especially as tea ...
within 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, Savoi ...
and then she earned a
Ph.D.
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 ...
degree in 1986 from the
University of Paris-Saclay
Paris-Saclay University (french: Université Paris-Saclay) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 prestigious universities that emerged from the division of the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne. ...
, with a thesis written under the supervision of François Latour, entitled ''Cobordismes d'immersions lagrangiennes et legendriens''
obordisms of Lagrangian and Legendrian immersions
She then became a professor at the (IRMA) of the
Université de Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
The French university traces its history to the ea ...
from 1987 until her early retirement in 2014. She was president of the association
Femmes et mathématiques in 1990 and 1991.
In 2009 she refused to receive the
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
, on the grounds that the President of France,
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
, had refused to respond to a letter written by her mother regarding the disappearance of her father. Finally in September 2018, French president
Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
admitted that Maurice Audin was tortured to death and apologized on behalf of France.
In 2013 she was awarded the
Prix Ève Delacroix Le prix Ève-Delacroix is one of the prizes bestowed by the Académie française. The award which was established in 1977 by the Ève-Delacroix foundation is intended "for the author of a work (essay or novel) combining literary qualities with the ...
for her novel ''Une vie brève''.
Research
Michèle Audin's research work mainly belongs to the field of
symplectic geometry
Symplectic geometry is a branch of differential geometry and differential topology that studies symplectic manifolds; that is, differentiable manifolds equipped with a closed differential form, closed, nondegenerate form, nondegenerate different ...
. Her PhD thesis draws on
René Thom
René Frédéric Thom (; 2 September 1923 – 25 October 2002) was a French mathematician, who received the Fields Medal in 1958.
He made his reputation as a topologist, moving on to aspects of what would be called singularity theory; he became w ...
's theory of
cobordism
In mathematics, cobordism is a fundamental equivalence relation on the class of compact manifolds of the same dimension, set up using the concept of the boundary (French '' bord'', giving ''cobordism'') of a manifold. Two manifolds of the same dim ...
to contribute to the founding program of symplectic topology launched by the Russian mathematician
Vladimir Arnold
Vladimir Igorevich Arnold (alternative spelling Arnol'd, russian: link=no, Влади́мир И́горевич Арно́льд, 12 June 1937 – 3 June 2010) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician. While he is best known for the Kolmogorov–A ...
. Audin then oriented her research to dynamical aspects, and more specifically to
Hamiltonian systems.
In her monograph "''Spinning tops: A Course on Integrable Systems''", Audin discusses in detail the question of whether a
dynamical system
In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a ...
is integrable, a central question of her later research. A particularly enlightening example comes from her article "''Sur la réduction symplectique appliquée à la non-intégrabilité du problème du satellite''".
Audin's work on
Kovalevskaya top
In classical mechanics, the precession of a rigid body such as a spinning top under the influence of gravity is not, in general, an integrable problem. There are however three (or four) famous cases that are integrable, the Euler, the Lagrange, ...
led her to write another book, both mathematical, historical and more personal on this mathematician: "''Souvenirs sur
Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (russian: link=no, Софья Васильевна Ковалевская), born Korvin-Krukovskaya ( – 10 February 1891), was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differen ...
"''. She also published the correspondence (1928-1991) of two members of the
Bourbaki group
Nicolas Bourbaki () is the collective pseudonym of a group of mathematicians, predominantly French alumni of the École normale supérieure - PSL (ENS). Founded in 1934–1935, the Bourbaki group originally intended to prepare a new textbook in ...
, the mathematicians
Henri Cartan
Henri Paul Cartan (; 8 July 1904 – 13 August 2008) was a French mathematician who made substantial contributions to algebraic topology.
He was the son of the mathematician Élie Cartan, nephew of mathematician Anna Cartan, oldest brother of co ...
and
André Weil
André Weil (; ; 6 May 1906 – 6 August 1998) was a French mathematician, known for his foundational work in number theory and algebraic geometry. He was a founding member and the ''de facto'' early leader of the mathematical Bourbaki group. Th ...
, she wrote the first biography of the mathematician
Jacques Feldbau
Jacques Feldbau was a French mathematician, born on 22 October 1914 in Strasbourg, of an Alsatian Jewish traditionalist family. He died on 22 April 1945 at the ''Ganacker'' Camp, annex of the concentration camp of Flossenbürg in Germany. As a ...
, and she documented the genesis of the modern
holomorphic dynamics
Complex dynamics is the study of dynamical systems defined by iteration of functions on complex number spaces. Complex analytic dynamics is the study of the dynamics of specifically analytic functions.
Techniques
*General
**Montel's theorem
**Po ...
, with detailed portraits of the main protagonists:
Pierre Fatou
Pierre Joseph Louis Fatou (28 February 1878 – 9 August 1929) was a French mathematician and astronomer. He is known for major contributions to several branches of analysis. The Fatou lemma and the Fatou set are named after him.
Biography
P ...
,
Gaston Julia
Gaston Maurice Julia (3 February 1893 – 19 March 1978) was a French Algerian mathematician who devised the formula for the Julia set. His works were popularized by French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot; the Julia and Mandelbrot fractals are ...
and
Paul Montel
Paul Antoine Aristide Montel (29 April 1876 – 22 January 1975) was a French mathematician. He was born in Nice, France and died in Paris, France. He researched mostly on holomorphic functions in complex analysis.
Montel was a student of Émile ...
.
She contributes regularly on historical subjects to the mathematics
popularisation website .
As a writer
Alongside her activity as a mathematician, Audin leads an intense literary activity on her own and, since 2009, within the
Oulipo
Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
.
History of the Paris Commune
Passionate about the insurrection of the
Paris Commune of 1871
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
, Audin has written five books on this topic to document its history as well as its memory: two novels published by
Gallimard, ''Comme une rivière bleue'' (2017) and ''Josée Meunier, 19 rue des Juifs'' (2021), as well as three historical books published by . The first, ''Eugène Varlin, bookbinding worker 1839-1871'' (2019), is an anthology of the various writings of
Eugène Varlin
Eugène Varlin (; 5 October 1839 – 28 May 1871) was a French socialist, anarchist, communard and member of the First International. He was one of the pioneers of French syndicalism.
Biography Early life and activism
Louis-Eugène Varlin was ...
, some of which have not been published since their original release. The second, ''C'est la nuit surtout que le combat devient furieux'' (2020), publishes the correspondence between , an unknown paramedic, and her
Fourierist
Fourierism () is the systematic set of economic, political, and social beliefs first espoused by French intellectual Charles Fourier (1772–1837). Based upon a belief in the inevitability of communal associations of people who worked and lived to ...
family, during the few months of the Parisian insurrection. The last, ''La Semaine sanglante: Mai 1871''. ''Légendes et comptes'' (2021), proposes a new counting of the deaths of
Bloody Week
The ''semaine sanglante'' ("") was a weeklong battle in Paris from 21 to 28 May 1871, during which the French Army recaptured the city from the Paris Commune. This was the final battle of the Paris Commune.
Following the Treaty of Frankfurt ...
, going up to “certainly 15,000 dead”.
Activity within the Oulipo
Audin was guest of honor at a meeting of
Oulipo
Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
on the initiative of
Jacques Roubaud
Jacques Roubaud (; born 5 December 1932 in Caluire-et-Cuire, Rhône) is a French poet, writer and mathematician
Life and career
Jacques Roubaud taught Mathematics at University of Paris X Nanterre and Poetry at EHESS. A member of the Oulipo gr ...
, following the publication of her book ''Souvenirs sur Sofia Kovalevskaya'', which mixes in a discontinuous form anecdotes, precise mathematics, testimonials, excerpts of correspondence with commentary and even literary pastiches. There are references to the Oulipo in testimonial chapters entitled “''Je me souviens''” in reference to
Georges Perec
Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holoc ...
, or even in a pastiche of
Cosmicomics by
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomi ...
.
She became part of Oulipo in 2009, as the first member to be both a mathematician and a writer. Mathematics is for her both a source of inspiration for the constraints she invents and a recurring theme in her literary work. For example, in her novel ''La formule de Stokes'', the heroine is a mathematical formula.
She invented
constraints of a geometric nature such as
Pascal
Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...
's or
Désargues' constraint. Pascal's constraint was experienced in her online story ''Mai Quai Conti'' which evokes the history of the
Académie des sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...
during the Paris Commune: the relationships between the characters of the story are determined by the position of the points of a geometric figure illustrating
Pascal's theorem
In projective geometry, Pascal's theorem (also known as the ''hexagrammum mysticum theorem'') states that if six arbitrary points are chosen on a conic (which may be an ellipse, parabola or hyperbola in an appropriate affine plane) and joined by ...
.
She also worked with
Ian Monk
Ian Monk (born 1960) is a British writer and translator, based in Paris, France.[Ian Monk]
Oulipo website (retrieved 29 de ...
on ''nonine'', i.e. a variant of the
sestina
A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse, fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The wor ...
based on numbers which are not Queneau numbers, and therefore with which the system of permutation of the sestina does not work.
Her first novel, ''Cent vingt et un jours'', is based on an ''onzine'', i.e. a ''quenine'' of order 11 (variant of the sestina) from which characters, literary references and other elements of the narrative permute in a regulated manner. As in the poetic sestina, the last word of a chapter is the same as the first word of the next chapter.
Publications
Literature
* ''La formule de Stokes, roman'', Cassini, 2016.
* ''Mademoiselle Haas'', Gallimard, 2016.
* ''Cent vingt et un jours'', Gallimard, 2014. Translated into English by Christiana Hills as ''One Hundred Twenty-One Days'', Deep Vellum, 2016.
* ''Une vie brève'', Gallimard, 2013.
History of Mathematics
* ''Correspondance entre
Henri Cartan
Henri Paul Cartan (; 8 July 1904 – 13 August 2008) was a French mathematician who made substantial contributions to algebraic topology.
He was the son of the mathematician Élie Cartan, nephew of mathematician Anna Cartan, oldest brother of co ...
et
André Weil
André Weil (; ; 6 May 1906 – 6 August 1998) was a French mathematician, known for his foundational work in number theory and algebraic geometry. He was a founding member and the ''de facto'' early leader of the mathematical Bourbaki group. Th ...
(1928-1991)'', Documents Mathématiques 6, Société Mathématique de France, 2011.
* ''Une histoire de Jacques Feldbau'',
Société mathématique de France
Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA.
Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...
, collection T, 2010.
* ''Fatou, Julia, Montel, le Grand Prix des sciences mathématiques de 1918, et après'', Springer, 2009
* ''Souvenirs sur Sofia Kovalevskaya'', Calvage et Mounet, 2008.
Mathematics
* ''Géométrie'', EDP-Sciences, 2005.
* ''Hamiltonian systems and their integrability'', Translated from the 2001 French original by Anna Pierrehumbert. Translation edited by Donald Babbitt. SMF/AMS Texts and Monographs, vol. 15.
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
, Providence, RI;
Société mathématique de France
Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA.
Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...
, Paris, 2008. ,
* ''The topology of torus actions on symplectic manifolds'', Progress in Mathematics, vol. 93, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1991. ,
References
External links
Page about Michèle Audin on the Website of l'IRMA
Page about Michèle Audin on the official Website of l'OulipoMichèle Audin, ''Publier sous l’Occupation. Autour du cas de Jacques Feldbau et de l’académie des sciences''
Michèle Audin, ''La vérité sur la Poldévie''
Michèle Audin, ''Carrés imparfaits''
All articles written by Michèle Audin are in ''Images des Mathématiques''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Audin, Michele
French women mathematicians
People from Algiers
1954 births
Living people
French geometers
Oulipo members
Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg
Academic staff of the University of Geneva
École Normale Supérieure alumni
Academic staff of Paris-Saclay University
University of Paris alumni
20th-century French mathematicians
21st-century French mathematicians
20th-century women mathematicians
21st-century women mathematicians
20th-century French women
21st-century French women