Beno Eckmann

thumb|200px|Beno Eckmann (1988) Beno Eckmann (31 March 1917 – 25 November 2008) was a Swiss mathematician, known for his research in algebraic topology, homological algebra, group theory, and differential geometry. At the International Congress of Mathematicians he was an invited speaker in 1954 in Amsterdam and a plenary speaker in 1962 in Stockholm. He won the 2008 Albert Einstein Medal. Quotes We probably all agree that eventually reducing a difficult problem to a "nice" situation is at the heart of mathematics. Topology, Algebra, Analysis—Relations and Missing Links Notices of AMS 46 5 1999 520-527 https://www.ams.org/notices/199905/fea-eckmann.pdf (quote from p. 520) An Interview with Beno Eckmann (2010) Together with many other people and after a long development I could prove that a Poincaré duality group of cohomological dimension 2 is the group of a Riemann surface. That was actually a conjecture of Jean-Pierre Serre. "You have to prove it!" he had always insisted. Colbois, Bruno Riedtmann, Christine Schroeder, Viktor An interview with Beno Eckmann by by Martin Raussen and Alain Valette Math.ch/100: Schweizerische Mathematische Gesellschaft 1910-2010 / Societe Mkathematique Suisse 1910-2010 / Swiss Mathematical Society 1910-2010 https://books.google.com/books?id=NGL4MBwUrYYC&pg=394 2010 European Mathematical Society 978-3-03719-089-0 389–401 (quote from p. 394) Still another important area is Poincaré duality for groups, invented by Robert Bieri and myself. They behave like manifolds: homology, cohomology, you see, in complementary dimensions, but with another dualizing module. Many groups that are interesting in algebraic geometry, group theory or other areas are such duality groups. p. 396 External links Brief biography at the University of St Andrews, Scotland Category:1917 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Academics from Switzerland Category:Mathematicians from Switzerland Category:People from Bern