Serge Lang
French-American mathematician / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the French-American mathematician. For the French journalist who founded the alpine skiing World Cup, see Serge Lang (skiing).
Serge Lang (French: [lɑ̃ɡ]; May 19, 1927 – September 12, 2005) was a French-American mathematician and activist who taught at Yale University for most of his career. He is known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the influential Algebra. He received the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in 1960 and was a member of the Bourbaki group.
Quick Facts Born, Died ...
Serge Lang | |
---|---|
![]() Serge Lang (1927–2005) | |
Born | (1927-05-19)May 19, 1927 Paris, France |
Died | September 12, 2005(2005-09-12) (aged 78) |
Citizenship | French American |
Education | California Institute of Technology (BA) Princeton University (PhD) |
Known for | Work in number theory |
Awards | Leroy P. Steele Prize (1999) Cole Prize (1960) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Mathematics |
Institutions | University of Chicago Columbia University Yale University |
Thesis | On Quasi Algebraic Closure (1951) |
Doctoral advisor | Emil Artin |
Doctoral students | Minhyong Kim Stephen Schanuel |
Close
As an activist, Lang campaigned against the Vietnam War, and also successfully fought against the nomination of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington to the National Academies of Science. Later in his life, Lang was an HIV/AIDS denialist. He claimed that HIV had not been proven to cause AIDS and protested Yale's research into HIV/AIDS.[1]