Jean Bourgain belongs to the mathematical record as a figure whose results outlasted the problems that prompted them.
The record lists Jean Bourgain as Belgian mathematician and Fields Medalist (1954-2018).
Jean Bourgain was born at Ostend in 1954. His recorded nationality is Belgium. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Free University of Brussels.
Twentieth-century mathematics became abstract and highly specialised, and its methods reached into physics, economics and computing.
His academic posts were held at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
The recorded fields of work are mathematical analysis, functional analysis and mathematics.
Mathematics is the one discipline whose results, once proved, are never overturned.
Recognition followed: Fields medal (1994), Élie Cartan Prize (1990), Ostrowski Prize (1991) and Salem Prize (1983).
That the work was done from Belgium matters: mathematical training, institutions and the language of publication have never been evenly distributed.
Jean Bourgain died in 2018, aged 64. The proofs remain, and a proof does not decay - which is the particular permanence mathematics offers.
Achievements
- Fields medal — 1994
- Élie Cartan Prize — 1990
- Ostrowski Prize — 1991
- Salem Prize — 1983
- The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences — 2010
- Held posts at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Fields: mathematical analysis, functional analysis and mathematics
