Editing Laurent Lafforgue

{{short description|French mathematician}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Laurent Lafforgue
|image             = File:Laurent Lafforgue.png
|image_size        = 
|caption           = 
|birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1966|11|6|df=yes}}
|birth_place       = [[Antony, Hauts-de-Seine]], [[France]]
|death_date        = 
|death_place       = 
|fields            = [[Mathematics]]
|workplaces        = [[CNRS]]
|alma_mater        = [[École Normale Supérieure]]<br>[[Paris-Saclay University]]
|thesis_title      = D-stukas de Drinfeld
|thesis_url        = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/494853977
|thesis_year       = 1994
|doctoral_advisor  = [[Gérard Laumon]]
|doctoral_students =
|known_for         = [[Lafforgue's theorem|Proof of Langlands conjectures]]
|awards            = [[Clay Research Award]] (2000)<br>[[Fields Medal]] (2002)
}}
'''Laurent Lafforgue''' ({{IPA|fr|lafɔʁɡ|lang}}; born 6 November 1966) is a French [[mathematician]]. He has made outstanding contributions to [[Langlands' program]] in the fields of [[number theory]] and [[Mathematical analysis|analysis]],<ref>D Mackenzie (2000) ''Fermat's Last Theorem's First Cousin'', [[Science (journal)|Science]] 287(5454), 792-793.</ref> and in particular proved the Langlands conjectures for the [[Automorphism#Automorphism group|automorphism group]] of a function field. The crucial contribution by Lafforgue to solve this question is the construction of compactifications of certain [[moduli stack]]s of [[shtuka]]s. The [[mathematical proof|proof]] was the result of more than six years of concentrated efforts.<ref>{{citation
 | last = Laumon | first = Gérard
 | arxiv = math.NT/0212417
 | contribution = The work of Laurent Lafforgue
 | isbn = 7-04-008690-5
 | mr = 1989178
 | pages = 91–97
 | publisher = Higher Education Press | location = Beijing
 | title = Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Vol. I (Beijing, 2002)
 | year = 2002}}</ref>

In 2002 at the 24th [[International Congress of Mathematicians]] in [[Beijing]], [[China]], he received the [[Fields Medal]] together with [[Vladimir Voevodsky]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Friedlander, Eric M.|author2=Rapoport, Michael|author3=Suslin, Andrei|year=2003|url=https://www.ams.org/notices/200302/fea-suslin.pdf|title=The mathematical work of the 2002 Fields medalists|journal=Notices Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=50|issue=2|pages=212–217}}</ref>

== Biography ==
Laurent Lafforgue has two brothers, Thomas and [[Vincent Lafforgue|Vincent]], both mathematicians. Thomas is now a teacher in a ''[[classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles]]'' at Lycée Louis le Grand in [[Paris]] and [[Vincent Lafforgue|Vincent]] a [[CNRS]] directeur de recherches at the Institut Fourier in Grenoble.

He won 2 silver medals at [[International Mathematical Olympiad]] (IMO) in 1984 and 1985. He entered the [[École Normale Supérieure]] in 1986. In 1994 he received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] under the direction of [[Gérard Laumon]] in the [[Arithmetic]] and [[Algebraic Geometry]] team at the [[Université de Paris-Sud]]. Currently he is a research director of [[CNRS]]. He was detached as permanent professor of [[mathematics]] at the [[Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques]] (IHÉS) in [[Bures-sur-Yvette]], France, in 2000-2021. In 2021, he left his IHÉS position and moved to [[Huawei]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=French Mathematician Laurent Lafforgue joins Huawei team |date=28 September 2021 |url=https://www.huaweicentral.com/french-mathematician-laurent-lafforgue-joins-huawei-team/}}</ref> His goal there is to apply [[topos theory]] to the area of [[artificial intelligence]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-09-01 |title=Laurent Lafforgue rejoint Huawei Technologies France - IHES |url=https://www.ihes.fr/laurent-lafforgue/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241206142642/https://www.ihes.fr/laurent-lafforgue/ |archive-date=2024-12-06 |access-date=2025-03-28 |work=IHES |language=fr-FR}}</ref> 

==Career==
He received the [[Clay Research Award]] in 2000, and the {{ill|Grand Prix Jacques Herbrand|fr}} of the [[French Academy of Sciences#Medals, awards and prizes|French Academy of Sciences]] in 2001 and was awarded the Fields Medal in 2002. His younger brother [[Vincent Lafforgue]] is also a notable mathematician. On 22 May 2011 Lafforgue was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from the [[University of Notre Dame]].<ref>{{cite web|last=University of Notre Dame |title=Honorary Degree |url=http://commencement.nd.edu/archives/honorary-degrees/ |access-date=20 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813213048/http://commencement.nd.edu/archives/honorary-degrees/ |archive-date=13 August 2011 }}</ref>

==Views==
Lafforgue is a critic of what he calls the "pedagogically correct" in France's educational system. In 2005, he was forced to resign from the [[Haut conseil de l'éducation]] after he expressed these views in a private letter that he sent to [[Bruno Racine]], president of the HCE, that later was made public.<ref>{{citation|url=http://archives.polemia.com/article.php?id=1128|title=" Démission " forcée de Laurent Lafforgue, mathématicien français, du Haut Conseil de l'Education (HCE)|work=Polémia|language=fr|date=December 10, 2005}}.</ref>

Laurent is a devout Catholic and never married.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Christ is the truth |url=https://www.laurentlafforgue.org/textes/ChristVeriteEnseignementCatholique.pdf}}</ref>  He opposed [[same-sex marriage in France]], and supported the {{Interlanguage link|Les Veilleurs (mouvement)|lt="Les Veilleurs” movement|fr}}.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lafforgue: la vérité est que, sans le Christ, nous sommes perdus - Communion et Libération - Site officiel |url=https://www.clonline.org/fr/actualite/articles/2014-05-09-lafforgue-la-verite-est-que-sans-le-christ-nous-sommes-perdus |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=www.clonline.org |language=fr}}</ref>

In 2024, he declared that he was “full of admiration for Huawei”, which would supposedly be suffering a [[Criticism of Huawei|campaign of criticism]] from the USA.<ref>{{Cite web |title=La maison d’un vivant : épisode 5/5 du podcast Alexandre Grothendieck, légende rebelle des mathématiques {{!}} Radio France |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/les-grandes-traversees/la-maison-d-un-vivant-4485497 |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=France Culture |at=Minute 46 |language=fr}}</ref>  

==Works==
'''Expository articles'''
* Lafforgue, L. ''[https://www.elibm.org/ft/10011693000 Chtoucas de Drinfeld et applications.] [Drinfelʹd shtukas and applications]'' Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Vol. II (Berlin, 1998). Doc. Math. 1998, Extra Vol. II, 563–570.
* Lafforgue, Laurent. ''Chtoucas de Drinfeld, formule des traces d'Arthur-Selberg et correspondance de Langlands. [Drinfelʹd shtukas, Arthur-Selberg trace formula and Langlands correspondence]'' Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Vol. I (Beijing, 2002), 383–400, Higher Ed. Press, Beijing, 2002. {{arxiv|math/0212399}}
'''Research articles'''
* Lafforgue, Laurent. ''Chtoucas de Drinfeld et correspondance de Langlands. [Drinfelʹd shtukas and Langlands correspondence]'' Invent. Math. 147 (2002), no. 1, 1–241.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Gérard Laumon, [https://arxiv.org/abs/math.AG/0003131 ''La correspondance de Langlands sur les corps de fonctions (d'après Laurent Lafforgue)''], [[Séminaire Nicolas Bourbaki|Séminaire Bourbaki]], 52e année, 1999–2000, no. 873

==External links==
* [https://www.laurentlafforgue.org/ Official home page] (in French)
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Lafforgue}}
* {{MathGenealogy |id=22738}}
* {{IMO results}}
* Lafforgue and education in France [https://web.archive.org/web/20061006045423/http://www.esec-alberto-sampaio.rcts.pt/filosofia/buescu_lafforgue.htm L’Affaire Lafforgue] (in Portuguese)

{{Fields medalists}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafforgue, Laurent}}
[[Category:1966 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Antony, Hauts-de-Seine]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:20th-century French mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century French mathematicians]]
[[Category:Algebraic geometers]]
[[Category:French number theorists]]
[[Category:Paris-Sud University alumni]]
[[Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni]]
[[Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni]]
[[Category:Fields Medalists]]
[[Category:Clay Research Award recipients]]
[[Category:French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists]]
[[Category:Huawei people]]
[[Category:International Mathematical Olympiad participants]]
[[Category:Paris-Saclay University people]]
[[Category:Paris-Saclay University alumni]]
[[Category:Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research]]