Roland Fraïssé (; 12 March 1920 – 30 March 2008) was a French

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal ...

ian. Fraïssé received his doctoral degree from the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

in 1953. In his thesis, Fraïssé used the back-and-forth method to determine whether two model-theoretic

structures A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

were

elementarily equivalent In model theory, a branch of mathematical logic, two structures ''M'' and ''N'' of the same signature ''σ'' are called elementarily equivalent if they satisfy the same first-order ''σ''-sentences. If ''N'' is a substructure of ''M'', one often ...

. This method of determining elementary equivalence was later formulated as the

Ehrenfeucht–Fraïssé game In the mathematical discipline of model theory, the Ehrenfeucht–Fraïssé game (also called back-and-forth games) is a technique based on game semantics for determining whether two structures are elementarily equivalent. The main application of ...

. Fraïssé worked primarily in relation theory. Another of his important works was the Fraïssé construction of a Fraïssé limit of finite structures. He also formulated Fraïssé's conjecture on order embeddings, and introduced the notion of compensor in the theory of posets.Petits posets : dénombrement, représentabilité par cercles et compenseurs, Roland Fraïssé and Nik Lygeros, ''Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences'', Série I 313 (1991), no. 7, 417–420 Most of his career was spent as Professor at the

University of Provence The University of Provence Aix-Marseille I (french: Université de Provence) was a public research university mostly located in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. It was one of the three Universities of Aix-Marseille and was part of the Academy of ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, France.

Selected publications

* ''Sur quelques classifications des systèmes de relations'', thesis, University of Paris, 1953; published in ''Publications Scientifiques de l'Université d'Alger'', series A 1 (1954), 35–182. * ''Cours de logique mathématique'', Paris: Gauthier-Villars Éditeur, 1967; second edition, 3 vols., 1971–1975; tr. into English and ed. by David Louvish as ''Course of Mathematical Logic'', 2 vols., Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973–1974. * ''Theory of relations'', tr. into English by P. Clote, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1986; rev. ed. 2000.

References

French logicians Model theorists Academic staff of the University of Provence 20th-century French mathematicians 21st-century French mathematicians 1920 births 2008 deaths Mathematical logicians French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French male writers University of Paris alumni {{France-mathematician-stub