Michèle Audin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michèle Audin
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Michèle Audin in 2016
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| Born | 3 January 1954 |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | Université Paris-Sud |
| Awards | Prix Ève Delacroix (2013) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Symplectic geometry |
| Institutions | Université de Strasbourg |
| Thesis | Cobordismes d'immersions lagrangiennes et legendriennes (1986) |
| Doctoral advisor | François Latour |
Michèle Audin (born January 3, 1954, in Algiers) is a French mathematician and writer. She used to be a professor at several universities. These include the University of Geneva and the University of Strasbourg. She is known for her work in a special area of math called symplectic geometry.
Contents
Michèle Audin's Life Story
Michèle Audin's parents were both involved in mathematics. Her father, Maurice Audin, was a mathematician. Her mother, Josette Audin, was a math teacher. Both her parents were Pied-Noirs, which means they were French people who lived in Algeria. They also worked for Algeria's independence.
When Michèle was a child, her father died in 1957 in Algeria. He died after being arrested and tortured by soldiers.
Her Education and Early Career
Michèle Audin studied at a special school called the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles. Later, she earned her Ph.D. degree in 1986. A Ph.D. is a very high university degree. She got it from the University of Paris-Saclay. Her main professor was François Latour.
After finishing her studies, she became a professor. She taught at the Institut de recherche mathématique avancée (IRMA). This institute is part of the Université de Strasbourg. She worked there from 1987 until she retired early in 2014. She also led an association called Femmes et Mathématiques (Women and Mathematics) in 1990 and 1991.
Standing Up for Her Family
In 2009, Michèle Audin chose not to accept a special award. This award was the Legion of Honour. She refused it because the French President at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, did not answer her mother's letter. The letter was about her father's disappearance.
Years later, in September 2018, the new French President, Emmanuel Macron, admitted what happened. He said that Maurice Audin was tortured to death. President Macron apologized on behalf of France.
In 2013, Michèle Audin received the Prix Ève Delacroix. She won this award for her novel called Une vie brève.
Michèle Audin's Math Research
Michèle Audin's main math research is in symplectic geometry. This is a field of mathematics that studies shapes and spaces. Her Ph.D. work helped develop a new area of math called symplectic topology. She later focused on how systems change over time, especially in Hamiltonian systems.
Books on Math and History
She wrote a book called "Spinning tops: A Course on Integrable Systems". In this book, she explores if a changing system can be solved easily. She also wrote about the "Kovalevskaya top." This led her to write another book about the mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya. This book was about math, history, and her own thoughts.
Michèle Audin also published letters between two famous mathematicians. They were Henri Cartan and André Weil. She wrote the first biography of mathematician Jacques Feldbau. She also wrote about how modern holomorphic dynamics started. This included detailed stories about Pierre Fatou, Gaston Julia, and Paul Montel.
She often writes articles about math history. These articles appear on a math website called Images des mathématiques. This helps make math easier for everyone to understand.
Michèle Audin as a Writer
Besides her math work, Michèle Audin is also a busy writer. Since 2009, she has been part of a group called Oulipo.
Writing About the Paris Commune
Michèle Audin is very interested in the Paris Commune of 1871. This was a big event in French history. She has written five books about it. Two of them are novels published by Gallimard. Their titles are Comme une rivière bleue (2017) and Josée Meunier, 19 rue des Juifs (2021).
She also wrote three history books published by Libertalia. One book is about Eugène Varlin, a worker from that time. Another book shares letters from Alix Payen, a nurse during the uprising. Her last book, La Semaine sanglante: Mai 1871, looks at how many people died during the "Bloody Week." She believes around 15,000 people died.
Her Work with Oulipo
Michèle Audin joined Oulipo in 2009. This group is known for writing with rules or constraints. She was the first member to be both a mathematician and a writer. Math gives her ideas for the writing rules she invents. It is also a common topic in her books. For example, in her novel La formule de Stokes, the main character is a math formula.
She has created writing rules based on geometry. One rule is called "Pascal's constraint." She used this in an online story about the Académie des sciences during the Paris Commune. The relationships between the story's characters followed a geometric pattern.
She also worked with Ian Monk on a type of poem called a "nonine." This is a different version of a sestina, which is a poem with special repeating words. Her first novel, Cent vingt et un jours, uses a similar idea. It has a special structure where characters and parts of the story move around in a set way.
See also
In Spanish: Michèle Audin para niños
