Dieudonné, Jean

Jean Dieudonné, in full Jean Alexandre Eugène Dieudonné, (born July 1, 1906, Lille, France—died November 29, 1992, Paris), French mathematician and educator known for his writings on abstract algebra, functional analysis, topology, and his theory of Lie groups.

Dieudonné was educated in Paris, receiving both his bachelor’s degree (1927) and his doctorate (1931) from the École Normale Supérieure. He was a founding member of the Nicolas Bourbaki group in the mid-1930s. After teaching at universities in Rennes and Nancy, France, and in São Paulo, Brazil, Dieudonné came to the United States in 1952 and taught mathematics at the University of Michigan and at Northwestern University. He returned to Paris to teach at the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies (1959–64). He became professor of mathematics at the University of Nice in 1964, dean of the science faculty in 1965, and professor emeritus in 1970. In 1968 he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences. In the 1960s he performed the inestimable service of helping Alexandre Grothendieck publish his profound reformulation of algebraic geometry.

Dieudonné’s publications included La Géométrie des groupes classiques (1955), Foundations of Modern Analysis (1960), Algèbre linéaire et géométrie élémentaire (1964), and Éléments d’analyse, 9 vol. (1968–82).