Marie-Hélène Schwartz
Marie-Hélène Schwartz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 October 1913 |
| Died | 5 January 2013 (aged 99) |
| Education | Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, École Normale Supérieure |
| Occupation | mathematician |
| Employer | University of Lille |
| Known for | characteristic numbers of spaces with singularities |
| Spouse | Laurent Schwartz |
| Parent | Paul Lévy |
Marie-Hélène Schwartz (1913 – 5 January 2013) was a French mathematician, known for her work on characteristic numbers of spaces with singularities.[1][2]
Education and career
Born Marie-Hélène Lévy, she was the daughter of mathematician Paul Lévy and the great-granddaughter of philologist Henri Weil. After studying at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, she began studies at the École Normale Supérieure in 1934 but contracted tuberculosis which forced her to drop out. She married another Jewish mathematician, Laurent Schwartz, in 1938, and both soon went into hiding while the Nazis occupied France. After the war, Schwartz taught at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne and finished a thesis on generalizations of the Gauss–Bonnet formula in 1953. In 1964, she moved to the University of Lille, from where she retired in 1981.[1][3]
Recognition
A conference was held in Schwartz's honour in Lille in 1986, and a day of lectures in Paris honoured her 80th birthday in 1993, during which she presented a two-hour talk herself. She continued publishing mathematical research into her late 80s.[1]
In 2026, Schwartz was announced as one of 72 historical women in STEM whose names have been proposed to be added to the 72 men already celebrated on the Eiffel Tower. The plan was announced by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo following the recommendations of a committee led by Isabelle Vauglin of Femmes et Sciences and Jean-François Martins, representing the operating company which runs the Eiffel Tower.[4][5]
References
- ^ a b c Kosmann-Schwarzbach, Yvette (2015), "Women mathematicians in France in the mid-twentieth century", BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, 30 (3): 227–242, arXiv:1502.07597, doi:10.1080/17498430.2014.976804, S2CID 119148294.
- ^ Audin, Michèle; Sabbah, Claude (17 January 2013), "Marie-Hélène Schwartz", Images des Mathématiques (in French), CNRS, archived from the original on 2020-09-01, retrieved 2015-05-17.
- ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Marie-Hélène Schwartz", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
- ^ "Eiffel Tower: a list of 72 women scientists will soon be inscribed on the Parisian monument", www.sortiraparis.com, retrieved 2026-02-05
- ^ "Eiffel Tower to honor 72 women scientists for posterity", 26 January 2026, retrieved 2026-02-05