Category Archives: Obituaries

Raoul Bott 1923-2005

Posted on December 22, 2005 by woit

I was deeply saddened to hear this morning that Raoul Bott died a couple days ago, on December 20th, in San Diego, of cancer. Bott was one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century; for some details about his … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Obituaries | 10 Comments

Serge Lang 1927-2005

Posted on September 15, 2005 by woit

I just heard that mathematician Serge Lang passed away this past Monday. Lang was a well-known number theorist and algebraist, a member of Bourbaki and recipient of the 1960 AMS Cole Prize. He was a professor here in the Columbia … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 16 Comments

Hans Bethe 1906-2005

Posted on March 7, 2005 by woit

Hans Bethe died at home in Ithaca, New York on Sunday. There’s an extensive obituary in the New York Times. I believe Bethe was the last remaining figure still alive from the generation of physicists who came of age with … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 8 Comments

Shiing-Shen Chern 1911-2004

Posted on December 5, 2004 by woit

Shiing-Shen Chern, one of the great geometers of the twentieth century, died last Friday at Nankai University. He was 93 years old. An article about his life is posted on the web-site of MSRI, the mathematics institute in Berkeley of … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 26 Comments

Hidenaga Yamagishi

Posted on October 13, 2004 by woit

A special issue of Physics Reports has appeared entitled “Hidenaga Yamagishi’s World”. Unfortunately it’s only available online if you are paying Elsevier, so I won’t post a link (it’s volume 398, issue 4-6). This issue is a memorial to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 3 Comments