Louis Nirenberg | |
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Louis Nirenberg in 1975
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Born |
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
28 February 1925
Residence | United States |
Citizenship | Canadian and American |
Fields | Mathematics |
Institutions | New York University |
Alma mater |
McGill University New York University |
Doctoral advisor | James Stoker |
Doctoral students |
Djairo Guedes de Figueiredo Sergiu Klainerman Martin Schechter |
Known for |
Partial differential equations Gagliardo–Nirenberg interpolation inequality Gagliardo–Nirenberg–Sobolev inequality Bounded mean oscillation (John–Nirenberg space) |
Notable awards |
Bôcher Memorial Prize (1959) Crafoord Prize (1982) Steele Prize (1994, 2014) National Medal of Science (1995) Chern Medal (2010) Abel Prize (2015) |
Notes | |
Louis Nirenberg (born 28 February 1925) is a Canadian American mathematician, considered one of the outstanding analysts of the 20th century.
He has made fundamental contributions to linear and nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) and their application to complex analysis and geometry. His contributions include the Gagliardo–Nirenberg interpolation inequality, which is important in the solution of the elliptic partial differential equations that arise in many areas of mathematics, and the formalization of the bounded mean oscillation known as John–Nirenberg space, which is used to study the behavior of both elastic materials and games of chance known as martingales.
Nirenberg's work on PDEs was described by the American Mathematical Society in 2002 as "about the best that's been done" towards solving the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem of fluid mechanics and turbulence, which is a Millennium Prize Problem and one of the largest unsolved problems in physics.
Nirenberg was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and attended Baron Byng High School. He studied as an undergraduate at McGill University, and obtained his doctorate from New York University in 1949 under the direction of James Stoker. He became a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He was also conferred the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, at the University of British Columbia in 2010.