Gustave Choquet was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

.

Choquet was born in Solesmes, Nord

Solesmes, Nord

-References:*...

. His contributions include work in functional analysis

Functional analysis

Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure and the linear operators acting upon these spaces and respecting these structures in a suitable sense...

, potential theory

Potential theory

In mathematics and mathematical physics, potential theory may be defined as the study of harmonic functions.- Definition and comments :The term "potential theory" was coined in 19th-century physics, when it was realized that the fundamental forces of nature could be modeled using potentials which...

, topology

Topology

Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...

 and measure theory. He is known for creating the Choquet theory

Choquet theory

In mathematics, Choquet theory is an area of functional analysis and convex analysis created by Gustave Choquet. It is concerned with measures with support on the extreme points of a convex set C...

, the Choquet integral

Choquet integral

In decision theory, a Choquet integral is a way of measuring the expected utility of an uncertain event. It is applied specifically to membership functions and capacities. In imprecise probability theory, the Choquet integral is also used to calculate the lower expectation induced by a 2-monotone...

 and the theory of capacities

Capacity of a set

In mathematics, the capacity of a set in Euclidean space is a measure of that set's "size". Unlike, say, Lebesgue measure, which measures a set's volume or physical extent, capacity is a mathematical analogue of a set's ability to hold electrical charge. More precisely, it is the capacitance of...

.

He did postgraduate work at the École Normale Supérieure

École Normale Supérieure

The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...

 Paris where his advisor was Arnaud Denjoy

Arnaud Denjoy

Arnaud Denjoy was a French mathematician.Denjoy was born in Auch, Gers. His contributions include work in harmonic analysis and differential equations. His integral was the first to be able to integrate all derivatives...

. He was Professor at the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

 (subsequently Paris VI

Pierre and Marie Curie University

The Paris VI University , or the Pierre and Marie Curie University , is a university located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France....

) from 1940 to 1984 and was also Professor at the École Polytechnique

École Polytechnique

The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

 from 1960 to 1969. His honours and awards included being a Member of the Académie des Sciences, and an Officier of the Légion d’Honneur.

His students include Haïm Brezis

Haïm Brezis

Haïm Brezis is a French mathematician who works in functional analysis and partial differential equations.Born in Riom-ès-Montagnes, Cantal, France. Brezis is the son of Romanian immigrant father, who came to France in the 1930s, and his mother is a Jew who fled from Holland...

, Gilles Godefroy, Nassif Ghoussoub

Nassif Ghoussoub

Nassif Ghoussoub is a Canadian mathematician working in the fields of non-linear analysis and partial differential equations. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics, a Distinguished University Scholar, and an elected member of the Board of Governors of the University of British Columbia.He did...

, Michel L. Lapidus, and Michel Talagrand

Michel Talagrand

Michel Pierre Talagrand is a French mathematician. Docteur ès sciences since 1977, he has been, since 1985, Directeur de Recherches at CNRS and a member of the Functional Analysis Team of the Institut de Mathématique of Paris...

.

He was married to mathematician and mathematical physicist Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat is a French mathematician and physicist. She was the first woman to be elected to the Académie des Sciences Française and is a Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur....

. He died in Lyon in 2006.

External links

• A biography (in French) by the Académie des Sciences.
• A short biography (in French).
• A brief obituary from the January 2007 Newsletter of the London Mathematical Society
  London Mathematical Society
  -See also:* American Mathematical Society* Edinburgh Mathematical Society* European Mathematical Society* List of Mathematical Societies* Council for the Mathematical Sciences* BCS-FACS Specialist Group-External links:* * *...
  
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• A commemorative section (396kb PDF) of the N° 111 Gazette des Mathématiciens (2007) of the Société Mathématique de France
  Société Mathématique de France
  The Société Mathématique de France is the main professional society of French mathematicians.The society was founded in 1872 by Émile Lemoine and is one of the oldest mathematical societies in existence...
  
  .