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 Paris-Saclay. Most recently, she taught at the University of Strasbourg. Her main area of study was symplectic geometry.
Contents
Michèle Audin's Life Story
Michèle Audin is the daughter of Maurice Audin, who was also a mathematician. Her mother, Josette Audin, was a mathematics teacher. Both her parents were from Algeria and were involved in politics.
When Michèle was a child, her father was arrested in June 1957. He later died while in custody in Algeria. This happened during a difficult time for the country.
Education and Early Career
Michèle Audin studied at a special school called the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles. She then earned her Ph.D. degree in 1986. Her advanced degree was from the University of Paris-Saclay. Her main research was about "Cobordisms of Lagrangian and Legendrian immersions."
After finishing her studies, she became a professor. She worked at the Institut de recherche mathématique avancée (IRMA) at the Université de Strasbourg. She taught there from 1987 until she retired early in 2014. From 1990 to 1991, she was the president of an association called "Femmes et mathématiques." This group supports women in mathematics.
A Special Refusal and Apology
In 2009, Michèle Audin was offered the Legion of Honour. This is a very important award in France. However, she chose not to accept it. She did this because the French President at the time had not responded to her mother's letter. The letter was about her father's disappearance.
Years later, in September 2018, the French President Emmanuel Macron made an important statement. He admitted that Maurice Audin had died due to torture. He also apologized on behalf of France.
In 2013, Michèle Audin received the Prix Ève Delacroix. This award was for her novel called Une vie brève.
Michèle Audin's Math Research
Michèle Audin's main work in mathematics is in a field called symplectic geometry. This area of math helps us understand shapes and spaces in a special way. Her PhD work built on ideas from another mathematician, René Thom. She helped develop a new area of math called symplectic topology.
Later, she focused on how systems change over time. This is known as Hamiltonian systems. She studied whether these systems could be "integrated," which means finding a way to describe their motion simply.
Books About Math and History
Michèle Audin wrote a book called "Spinning tops: A Course on Integrable Systems." In this book, she explored how to tell if a system is "integrable." She also wrote about the "Kovalevskaya Top," which is a famous problem in physics.
Her interest in the Kovalevskaya Top led her to write another book. This book was about the mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya. It combined math, history, and personal stories. Michèle Audin also published letters between two famous mathematicians, Henri Cartan and André Weil. She wrote the first biography of mathematician Jacques Feldbau. She also explored the history of modern holomorphic dynamics. This included detailed stories about key figures like Pierre Fatou and Gaston Julia.
She often writes articles about math history for a website called "Images des mathématiques." This helps make math more understandable for everyone.
Michèle Audin as a Writer
Besides her math work, Michèle Audin is also a very active writer. Since 2009, she has been part of a group called Oulipo. This group explores new ways of writing using special rules or "constraints."
Writing About the Paris Commune
Michèle Audin is very interested in the history of the Paris Commune of 1871. This was a time of great change and conflict in Paris. She has written several books about it. Two of her books, Comme une rivière bleue (2017) and Josée Meunier, 19 rue des Juifs (2021), are novels.
She also wrote three historical books. One is about Eugène Varlin, a worker and activist. Another book, C'est la nuit surtout que le combat devient furieux (2020), shares letters from a paramedic named Alix Payen during the conflict. Her book, La Semaine sanglante: Mai 1871, looks at the number of people who died during a very violent week. She suggests that many thousands of people died during this time.
Her Work with Oulipo
Michèle Audin was invited to a meeting of the Oulipo group. This happened after she published her book about Sofya Kovalevskaya. That book mixed math, history, and personal stories in a unique way.
She joined Oulipo in 2009. She was the first member to be both a mathematician and a writer. For her, math is a source of ideas for the writing rules she creates. It is also a common theme in her books. For example, in her novel La formule de Stokes, the main character is a mathematical formula.
She has invented writing rules based on geometry. One example is "Pascal's constraint." She used this in an online story called Mai Quai Conti. This story is about the history of the French Academy of Sciences during the Paris Commune. The relationships between the characters in the story are based on points in a geometric shape.
She also worked with another writer, Ian Monk, on a type of poem called a "nonine." This is a special version of a "sestina," which is a poem with a repeating pattern of words. Her first novel, Cent vingt et un jours, uses a similar idea. It's based on a "quenine" of order 11. This means characters and parts of the story move around in a set way. Just like in some poems, the last word of one chapter is the same as the first word of the next.
See also
In Spanish: Michèle Audin para niños
