José Adem

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José Adem
Born(1921-10-27)27 October 1921
Died14 February 1991(1991-02-14) (aged 69)
Mexico City, Mexico
Alma materNational University of Mexico (B.S., 1949)
Princeton University (Ph.D., 1952)
Known forAdem relations
Scientific career
FieldsAlgebraic Topology
Norman Steenrod

José Adem (27 October 1921 – 14 February 1991) was a Mexican mathematician who worked in algebraic topology, and proved the Adem relations between Steenrod squares.

Life and education

Born José Adem Chahín[1] in Tuxpan, Veracruz, (published his works as José Adem), Adem showed an interest in mathematics from an early age, and moved to Mexico City in 1941 to pursue a degree in engineering and mathematics. He obtained his B.S. in mathematics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1949.[2] During this time he met Solomon Lefschetz, a famous algebraic topologist who was spending prolonged periods of time in Mexico. Lefschetz recognized Adem's mathematical talent, and sent him as a doctoral student to Princeton University where he graduated in 1952.[3] His dissertation, Iterations of the squaring operations in algebraic topology, was written under the supervision of Norman Steenrod and introduced what are now called the Adem relations.[4]

His brother is geophysicist Julián Adem, who obtained a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Brown University in 1953.[5] Julián's son is topologist Alejandro Adem.[6]

Career

Adem became a researcher at the Mathematics Institute of UNAM (1954–1961), and then head of the Mathematics Department at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (1961–1973).[1] He was elected to El Colegio Nacional on 4 April 1960.[2]

In 1951 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[7] In 1956, Adem started the second series of the Boletín de la Sociedad Matemática Mexicana.[3]

Publications

References

  1. Silva Herzog, Jesús. "Adem Chahín, José (1921-1991)". Biografías de amigos y conocidos, via www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  2. "Biography of José Ádem". El Colegio Nacional (Mexico). Archived from the original on 2007-01-05. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  3. Adem Díaz de León, Alejandro. "Biography of José Adem". Sociedad Matemática Mexicana (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  4. José Adem at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  5. Julián Adem at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  6. Bonato, Anthony (2017-02-15). "Interview with a Mathematician: Alejandro Adem". The Intrepid Mathematician. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  7. "Guggenheim Fellowship for José Adem". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2018-04-01.