Elon Lages Lima | |
---|---|
Born |
Maceió, Alagoas |
July 9, 1929
Died | May 7, 2017 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
(aged 87)
Nationality | Brazilian |
Fields | Mathematics |
Institutions | Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada |
Alma mater |
University of Chicago University of Brazil |
Thesis | Duality and Postnikov Invariants (1958) |
Doctoral advisor | Edwin Spanier |
Known for | Spectrum (topology) |
Elon Lages Lima (July 9, 1929 – May 7, 2017) was a Brazilian mathematician whose research concerned differential topology, algebraic topology, and differential geometry. Lima was an influential figure in the development of mathematics in Brazil.
Lima was professor emeritus at Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada of which he was the director during three separate periods. Lima has been twice recipient of the Jabuti Prize from the Câmara Brasileira do Livro, for his textbooks Espaços Métricos and Álgebra Linear, and of the Anísio Teixeira Prize from the Ministry of Education and Sports. His mathematical style was heavily influenced by Bourbaki's.
He began his career as a high school teacher in Fortaleza, Ceará. Lima graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the Universidade do Brasil (today UFRJ) in 1953. He obtained his Doctorate in 1958 from the University of Chicago with Edwin Henry Spanier as advisor. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow, and holds memberships in the Academia Brasileira de Ciências (Brazilian Academy of Sciences) and the TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. He is a professor Honoris Causa of the Universidade Federal do Ceará and of the University of Brasília. He was a member of the Upper Board of FAPERJ from 1987 to 1991. He was also a member of the National Board of Education.