Jean Cerf
| Jean Cerf | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1928 |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | École Normale Supérieure |
| Known for | Cerf theory |
| Awards | prix Servant (1970) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions |
University of Lille University of Paris XI |
| Doctoral advisor | Henri Cartan |
| Doctoral students |
François Laudenbach Alain Chenciner Francis Sergeraert |
Jean Cerf (born in 1928) is a French mathematician, specializing in topology.
Jean Cerf studied at the École Normale Supérieure, graduating in sciences in 1947. After passing his agrégation in mathematics in 1950, he obtained a doctorate with thesis supervised by Henri Cartan. Cerf became a maître de conférences at the University of Lille and was later appointed a professor at the University of Paris XI. He was also a director of research at CNRS.
Cerf's research deals with differential topology, cobordism, and symplectic topology. In 1966 he was an Invited Speaker at the ICM in Moscow. In 1968 Cerf proved that every orientation-preserving diffeomorphism of is isotopic to the identity. In 1970 Cerf proved the pseudo-isotopy theory for simply connected manifolds. In 1970 he was awarded the prix Servant, together with Bernard Malgrange and André Néron (for independent work). 1971 he was the president of the Société Mathématique de France.
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