Graeme Segal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Graeme Bryce Segal
|
|
|---|---|
Graeme Segal in Berkeley, 1982
|
|
| Born | 21 December 1941 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney St Catherine's College, Oxford |
| Known for | Atiyah–Segal completion theorem Segal conjecture |
| Spouse(s) | Marina Warner |
| Awards | Pólya Prize (1990) Sylvester Medal (2010) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | St John's College, Cambridge All Souls College, Oxford |
| Thesis | Equivariant K-theory (1967) |
| Doctoral advisor | Michael Atiyah |
Graeme Bryce Segal FRS (born 21 December 1941) is an Australian mathematician, and professor at the University of Oxford.
Biography
Segal was educated at the University of Sydney, where he received his BSc degree in 1961. He went on to receive his D.Phil. in 1967 from St Catherine's College, Oxford; his thesis, written under the supervision of Michael Atiyah, was titled Equivariant K-theory.
His thesis was in the area of equivariant K-theory. The Atiyah–Segal completion theorem in that subject was a major motivation for the Segal conjecture, which he formulated. He has made many other contributions to homotopy theory in the past four decades, including an approach to infinite loop spaces. He was also a pioneer of elliptic cohomology, which is related to his interest in topological quantum field theory.
Segal was an Invited Speaker at the ICM in 1970 in Nice and in 1990 in Kyoto. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1982 and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was awarded the Sylvester Medal by the Royal Society in 2010.
He was Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at the University of Cambridge from 1990 to 1999. Segal was elected the President of the London Mathematical Society in 2011.
He is married to writer, Marina Warner. They live in London.
Books
- Loop Groups (Oxford Mathematical Monographs). New ed. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, ISBN: 0-19-853561-9 (with Andrew Pressley).
- Lectures on Lie groups and Lie algebras (London Mathematical Society Student texts Vol. 32). 5th ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN: 0-521-49579-2 (with Ian G. Macdonald and Roger Carter).
