Joachim Lambek

German mathematician

Joachim Lambek is remembered in mathematics for work the next generation could build on.

The record lists Joachim Lambek as German mathematician.

Joachim Lambek was born at Leipzig in 1922. His recorded nationality is Germany. He studied at McGill University.

Twentieth-century mathematics became abstract and highly specialised, and its methods reached into physics, economics and computing.

His academic posts were held at McGill University.

The recorded fields of work are algebra and mathematics.

Mathematics accumulates without discarding: a proof from two thousand years ago is still a proof.

The honours record reads: Jeffery–Williams Prize.

That the work was done from Germany matters: mathematical training, institutions and the language of publication have never been evenly distributed.

Joachim Lambek died in 2014, aged 92. The proofs remain, and a proof does not decay - which is the particular permanence mathematics offers.

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