Raphaël Salem (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Ραφαέλ Σαλέμ; November 7, 1898 in

Salonika Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

(now

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

) – June 20, 1963 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

) was a

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

after whom are named the Salem numbers and Salem–Spencer sets and whose widow founded the

Salem Prize The Salem Prize, in memory of Raphael Salem, is awarded each year to young researchers for outstanding contributions to the field of analysis. It is awarded by the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and was fo ...

Biography

Raphaël Salem was born in

Saloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

to Emmanuel and Fortunée Salem. His father was a well known lawyer who dealt with international problems. Raphaël was brought up in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family who followed the traditions of their ancestors. At age 15 the family moved to

and Salem attended the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

for two years. Believing that he would follow in father's footsteps, Salem entered the Law Faculty of the

University of Paris The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), Metonymy, metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revo ...

. His interests, though, were not in law but rather in mathematics and engineering. Soon there after Salem started taking mathematics courses with Hadamard all the while continuing his studies for law. In 1919 he received his law degree. He then began working for a doctorate in law but quickly decided to change direction to science, which he had been studying for years in parallel to his work in law. After receiving his '' Licence ès sciences'' from the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

and then worked for a degree in engineering. In 1921 he received the degree of Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures from the

École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures 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 ...

. Having completed his studies in law, science and engineering Salem then went into banking and started working for

Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (“Bank of Paris and the Netherlands”), generally referred to from 1982 as Paribas, was a French investment bank based in Paris. In May 2000, it merged with the Banque Nationale de Paris to form BNP Paribas. ...

in 1921. In his free time he worked on Fourier series, a topic which interested him throughout his life. In the spring of 1939 Salem collaborated with the brilliant young

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

mathematician Józef Marcinkiewicz, where he continued to write mathematics papers while still working for the bank. With a deteriorating political situation in

and the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in September 1939, Salem was called up for military duty. He was attached to the Deuxième Bureau of the General Staff of the French Army. He was sent to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

to assist the Head of the

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

Coordination Committee but he was demobilised in June 1940. Salem left England in the autumn of 1940 and emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

where he settled in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. In 1941, he was appointed as a lecturer in mathematics at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, where he was rapidly promoted and became an assistant and associate professor. In 1958 he was appointed as Professor at the

and lived in Paris until his death in 1963. In 1967,

Éditions Hermann Éditions Hermann () is a French publishing house founded in 1876, by the French professor of mathematics Arthur Hermann. It publishes books on science and the arts. ''Éléments de mathématique'' Hermann is noted for publishing several vol ...

published Salem's ''Oeuvres mathématiques'', edited by his collaborators

Antoni Zygmund Antoni Zygmund (December 25, 1900 – May 30, 1992) was a Polish mathematician. He worked mostly in the area of mathematical analysis, including especially harmonic analysis, and he is considered one of the greatest analysts of the 20th century. ...

and

Jean-Pierre Kahane Jean-Pierre Kahane (11 December 1926 – 21 June 2017) was a French mathematician with contributions to harmonic analysis. Career Kahane attended the École normale supérieure and obtained the ''agrégation'' of mathematics in 1949. He then wor ...

. After Salem's death his widow established the

, an international prize given to young researchers for outstanding contributions to Fourier series.

Personal

In 1923 Salem married a young woman named Adriana and the couple had three children: a daughter and two sons. His father died in

in 1940 while his mother, his sister, his sister's husband, and his sister's son, were all arrested and deported to a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

concentration camp where they all died. Salem's older son survived the war and he enlisted in the free French Forces and took part in Allied landings in the South of France in 1944. By this time his surviving family had managed to escape from France and they relocated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. Aside from his interest of mathematics, Salem also loved music and playing the violin, preferring to play in quartets. He was also interested in the arts and literature. He also enjoyed sports, especially skiing and horseback riding.

Books

''Essais sur les séries trigonométriques''
Paris, Hermann 1940 * ''Algebraic Numbers and Fourier Analysis'', Boston, Heath, 1963 * ''Œuvres mathématiques de Raphaël Salem'', Paris, Hermann, 1967 * with

: ''Ensembles parfaits et séries trigonométriques'', Paris, Hermann, 1963, 1994

References

Salem biography by ''J. J. O'Connor'' and ''E. F. Robertson'' at St.Andrews University

External links

Laboratoire de Mathématiques Raphaël Salem at Université de Rouen, France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salem, Raphael 20th-century French mathematicians Greek mathematicians École Centrale Paris alumni University of Paris alumni Greek emigrants to France Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Academic staff of the University of Paris 1898 births 1963 deaths Greek people of French descent Jews from Thessaloniki Lycée Condorcet alumni Jewish scientists