Loïc Merel

Loïc Merel ( born August 13, 1965 in Carhaix- Plouguer in Brittany ) is a French mathematician who deals with modular forms and number theory.

Merel studied from 1986 at the École normale supérieure his doctorate in 1993 at the University Pierre and Marie Curie ( Univ. Paris VI) with Joseph Oesterlé about modular symbols ( Quelques aspects Arithmétiques et géométriques de la théorie of symboles module aires ), where he ideas of Yuri Manin and Barry Mazur took up. Previously, he served one years ' military service " at the École polytechnique. After that, he conducted research for the CNRS at the University of Paris VI. 1995 to 1997 he was " Miller Professor " at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a professor at the University of Paris VII ( Univ. Paris -Diderot ) and at the Institut de Mathematiques de Jussieu.

Merel dealt among other things with the arithmetic of elliptic curves and proved in 1996 his habilitation a theorem on the uniform boundedness of the order of the torsion group of elliptic curves over number fields. He thus broke one open for more than thirty years problem. Bounds for the order of the torsion group were previously known only for special number field (for example, for rational number field by the work of Mazur 1977). Merel could specify a given by the degree of the number field barrier.

In 1995 he received the Bronze Medal of the CNRS. He received the Saintour Prize ( 1994) and the Peccot Prize ( 1995) of the Collège de France. In 1996 he received the EMS price at the European Congress of Mathematicians (ECM ) in Bucharest. In 1997 he received the U.S. Blumenthal Prize. In 1998 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin ( Points rationnels et Séries de Dirichlet ).