Jacob Palis

Biography

Jacob Palis was born in Uberaba, Minas Gerais. His father was a Lebanese immigrant, and his mother was a Syrian immigrant. The couple had eight children (five men and three women), and Jacob was the youngest. His father was a merchant, owner of a large store, and supported and funded the studies of his children. Palis said that he already enjoyed mathematics in his childhood.[4][5]

At 16, Palis moved to Rio de Janeiro to study engineering at the University of Brazil – now UFRJ. He was approved in first place in the entrance exam, but was not old enough to be accepted; he then had to take the university's entry exam again a year later, at which again he obtained first place. He completed the course in 1962 with honours and receiving the award for the best student.[5]

In 1964, he moved to the United States. In 1966 he obtained his master's degree in mathematics under the guidance of Stephen Smale at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1968 his Ph.D., with the thesis On Morse-Smale Diffeomorphisms, again with Smale as advisor.[6][7]

In 1968, he returned to Brazil and became a researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[6] Since 1973 he has held a permanent position as professor at IMPA, where he was director from 1993 until 2003. He was Secretary-General of the Third World Academy of Sciences from 2004 to 2006, and elected its President in 2006[8] and remained on position till December 2012. He was also president of the International Mathematical Union from 1999 to 2002.[9] He is the current president of Brazilian Academy of Sciences since 2007.[10] Palis has advised more than forty Ph.D. students so far from more than ten countries.

Awards and honors

Palis has received numerous medals and decoration. He is a foreign member of several academies of sciences, including the United States National Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Sciences. In 2005 Palis was selected a member of the Legion of Honor.

He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.[11] In 2010 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for his fundamental contributions in the mathematical theory of dynamical systems that has been the basis for many applications in various scientific disciplines, such as in the study of oscillations.[12][13] He is also a recipient of the 1988 TWAS Prize.[14]

Selected publications
  • On Morse-Smale Dynamical Systems, Topology 19, 1969 (385–405). doi:10.1016/0040-9383(69)90024-X
  • Structural Stability Theorems, with S. Smale, Proceedings of the Institute on Global Analysis, American Math. Society, Vol. XIV, 1970 (223–232).
  • Cycles and Bifurcations Theory, with S. Newhouse, Asterisque 31, Société Mathématique de France, 1976 (44–140).
  • The Topology of Holomorphic Flows near a Singularity, with C. Camacho and N. Kuiper, Publications Math.Institut Hautes Études Scientifiques 48, 1978 (5–38).
  • Moduli of Stability and Bifurcation Theory, Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Helsinki, 1978 (835–839).
  • Stability of Parameterized Families of Gradient Vector Fields, with F. Takens, Annals of Mathematics 118, 1983 (383–421). doi:10.2307/2006976
  • Cycles and Measure of Bifurcation Sets for Two-Dimensional Diffeomorphisms, with F. Takens, Inventiones Mathematicae 82, 1985 (397–422). doi:10.1007/BF01388862
  • Homoclinic Orbits, Hyperbolic Dynamic and Fractional Dimensions of Cantor Sets (Lefschetz Centennial Conference) Contemporary Mathematics - American Mathematical Society, 58, 1987 (203–216).
  • Hyperbolicity and Creation of Homoclinic Orbits, with F.Takens, Annals of Mathematics 125, 1987 (337–374). doi:10.2307/1971313
  • On the C1 Omega-Stability Conjecture, Publications Math. Institut Hautes Études Scientifiques, 66, 1988 (210–215).
  • Bifurcations and Global Stability of Two-Parameter Families of Gradient Vector Fields with M. J. Carneiro, Publications Math. Institut Hautes Études Scientifiques 70, 1990 (103–168).
  • "Homoclinic Tangencies for Hyperbolic Sets of Large Hausdorff Dimension", with J. C. Yoccoz, Acta Mathematica 172, 1994, pp. 91–136.
  • High Dimension Diffeomorphisms Displaying Infinitely Many Sinks, with M. Viana, Annals of Mathematics 140, 1994 (207–250). doi:10.2307/2118546
  • A Global View of Dynamics and a Conjecture on the Denseness of Finitude of Attractors. Astérisque. France: , v. 261, pp. 339–351, 2000.
  • Homoclinic tangencies and fractal invariants in arbitrary dimension, with C. Moreira and M. Viana, C R Ac Sc Paris., 2001. doi:10.1016/S0764-4442(01)02085-7
  • Nonuniformily hyperbolic horseshoes unleashed by homoclinic bifurcations and zero density of attractors, with J.-C. Yoccoz, C R Ac Sc Paris., 2001.doi:10.1016/S0764-4442(01)02139-5
Books published
  • Geometric Theory of Dynamical Systems, with W. de Melo. Springer-Verlag, 1982; also published in Portuguese, Russian and Chinese.
  • Hyperbolicity and Sensitive-Chaotic Dynamics at Homoclinic Bifurcations, Fractal Dimensions and Infinitely Many Attractors, with F. Takens. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993; Second Edition, 1994.

References
  1. Christian Bonatti; Lorenzo J. Díaz; Marcelo Viana (30 March 2006), Dynamics Beyond Uniform Hyperbolicity: A Global Geometric and Probabilistic Perspective, Springer Science & Business Media, p. 9, ISBN 978-3-540-26844-4
  2. Berger, Pierre (2014). "Generic family with robustly infinitely many sinks". arXiv:1411.6441v2 [math.DS].
  3. "Jacob Palis Conjecture(Finitude of Attractors)(Dynamical Systems)". Open Problem Garden.
  4. "Revista Pesquisa Fapesp" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-14. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2006-11-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-01-08. Retrieved 2015-06-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-11-29. Retrieved 2012-08-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "Gruppe 1: Matematiske fag" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  12. Balzan Prize winners in 2010 Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, from the website of the Fondazione internazionale Premio Balzan
  13. Notices of the AMS, Volume 58, Number 1, pages 66 and 67
  14. "Prizes and Awards". The World Academy of Sciences. 2016.
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