On Wednesday, December 9, Leila Schneps invites you at Alliance française for a lecture dedicated to the greatest mathematician of the 20th century: Alexandre Grothendieck. At 7 pm, in the Spadina Theatre. Free entrance.

Alexandre Grothendieck (1928-2014), was a stateless mathematician, of German origin, but established in France. Often called "the greatest mathematician of the 20th century", he brought to a big piece of the mathematics a deep renewal, the fruit of a vision and a unique and rebel personality. Indeed, breaking violently with the mathematics at the top of his career, at the age of 42, Grothendieck turned to other horizons, making a commitment at first in ecologist movements where he played a founding role in France, and later in a solitary meditative exploration around the question of the Evil which left us thousands of extraordinary pages. The presentation will explore the various activities of this genius, monolithic and fickle, still little known by the general public.

Of American origin, Leila Schneps studied in Harvard and did her doctoral thesis in pure mathematics at the University of Paris. Since 1991, she works to the CNRS (national center of scientific research) and discovered the late papers of Grothendieck the same year. She attempts since to study them, to read them, and to make them known through the web site of Grothendieck Circle dedicated to the man under all his aspects.

The lecture will take place in French.