French mathematical seminars have been an important type of institution combining research and exposition, active since the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1909 to 1937, the Séminaire Hadamard has gathered many participants (f. i. André Weil) around the presentation of international research papers and work in progress. The Séminaire Julia focussed on yearly themes and impulsed the Bourbaki movement. The Séminaire Nicolas Bourbaki is the most famous, but is atypical in a number of ways: it attempts to cover, if selectively, the whole of pure mathematics, and its talks are now, by convention, reports and surveys on research by someone not directly involved. More standard is a working group organised around a specialist area, with research talks given and written up 'from the horse's mouth'. Historically speaking, the Séminaire Cartan of the late 1940s and early 1950s, around Henri Cartan, was one of the most influential. Publication in those days was by means of the duplicated exemplaire (limited distribution and not peer-reviewed). The seminar model was tested, almost to destruction, by the SGA series of Alexander Grothendieck.
Read more about French Mathematical Seminars: Notable Seminars
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or mathematical:
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“An accurate charting of the American woman’s progress through history might look more like a corkscrew tilted slightly to one side, its loops inching closer to the line of freedom with the passage of time—but like a mathematical curve approaching infinity, never touching its goal. . . . Each time, the spiral turns her back just short of the finish line.”
—Susan Faludi (20th century)