Re: [HM] Jean Favard
Ralph A. Raimi (rarm@math.rochester.edu)
Thu, 13 May 1999 22:41:00 -0400
I spent the academic year 1949-1950 in Paris on a Fulbright
graduate fellowship; it was the first year of the Fulbrights in France and
the organization was not very tight. I attended what lectures I chose (at
"the Sorbonne", really the Institut Henri Poincare, quite a different
building) and took no examinations. Nor did I learn much. The courses I
chose to attend included one given by Favard, but I soon gave that up
because I couldn't understand it. Partly, as I recall, it was that Favard
spoke with a curious non-Parisian accent, and my French wasn't strong even
in the most standard forms; but it was probably more that the subject,
whatever it was, was beyond me. The best lecturers -- for me -- that year
were Georges Bouligand (Calcul differentiel et Integral) and Andre
Lichnerowicz (Algebre et Analyse Lineaires), the latter being a course
designed for students of physics. Or so he said. They were both
undergraduate courses by French standards but not by mine. Denjoy was also
giving a cours of some sort, but that, too, turned out to be beyond me and
I gave it up. I *think* Favard's course was something in functional
analysis or integration, not geometry, but such indistinct memories aren't
history. I will guarantee, however, that he was a regular faculty member
there at that time.
Ralph A. Raimi Tel. 716 275 4429 or (home) 716 244 9368
Dept. of Mathematics FAX 716 244 6631
University of Rochester Webpage http://www.math.rochester.edu/u/rarm
Rochester, NY 14627 (Webpage contains links to papers)