Nicolae Popescu

Nicolae Popescu, Ph.D., D.Phil. (Romanian: [nikoˈla.e poˈpesku]; 22 September 1937 – 29 July 2010^[1]) was a Romanian mathematician and professor at the University of Bucharest. He also held a research position at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy, and was elected a Member of the Romanian Academy in 1992.

He is best known for his contributions to algebra and the theory of Abelian categories. From 1964 to 2007 he collaborated with Pierre Gabriel on the characterization of abelian categories; their best-known result is the Gabriel–Popescu theorem. His areas of expertise were category theory, abelian categories with applications to rings and modules, adjoint functors, limits and colimits, the theory of sheaves, the theory of rings, fields and polynomials, and valuation theory. He also had interests and published in the following areas: algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, K-theory, class field theory, and algebraic function theory.

Popescu published between 1962 and 2008 more than 102 papers in peer-reviewed, mathematics journals, several monographs on the theory of sheaves, and also six books on abelian category theory and abstract algebra. In a Grothendieck-like, energetic style, he initiated and provided scientific leadership to several seminars on category theory, sheaves and abstract algebra which resulted in a continuous stream of high-quality mathematical publications in international, peer-reviewed mathematics journals by several members participating in his Seminar series. His book Abelian Categories with Applications to Rings and Modules^[2] continues to provide valuable information to mathematicians around the world.

Biography

Popescu was married, and there is a surviving wife, Professor Dr. Elena Liliana Popescu and three children. He earned his M.S. degree in mathematics in 1964, and his Ph.D. degree in mathematics in 1967, both at the University of Bucharest. He was awarded a D. Phil. degree (Doctor Docent) in 1972 by the University of Bucharest.

In 2009 he carried out mathematics studies at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy in the Algebra research group and also had international collaborations on three continents. He shared many moral, ethical and religious values with another famous mathematician, Alexander Grothendieck, who visited the School of Mathematics in Bucharest in 1968. Like Grothendieck, he had a long-standing interest in category theory, number theory, practicing Yoga, and supporting promising young mathematicians in his fields of interest. He also supported the early developments of category theory applications in relational biology and mathematical biophysics/mathematical biology.

Academic positions

Popescu was appointed as a Lecturer at the University of Bucharest in 1968 where he taught graduate students until 1972. Since 1964, he also held a Research Professorship at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy; the institute was closed in 1976 by order of Nicolae Ceaușescu, for reasons related to his daughter Zoia Ceaușescu, who had been hired at the institute two years before.

Books published

• (in Romanian) Elemente de teoria algebrică a numerelor, Universitate București, 1968. (Elements of the Algebraic Theory of Numbers)
• (in Romanian) Teoria categoriilor și a fasciculelor, Editura Stiintifica, 1971. (Category Theory and Sheaves)
• (in Romanian) Categorii Abeliene, Editura Academiei, 1971. (Abelian Categories)
• Popescu, Nicolae (1973). Abelian categories with Applications to Rings and Modules. London Mathematical Society Monographs. 3. London: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-561550-7. MR 0340375.
• Popescu, Nicolae; Popescu, Liliana (1979). Theory of categories. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague; Sijthoff & Noordhoff International Publishers, Alphen aan den Rijn. ISBN 90-286-0168-6. MR 0538276.

See also

• Carol I High School

Notes

External links

• Nicolae Popescu at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Nicolae Popescu - Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy
• Nicolae Popescu --Biography