Graeme Segal

Graeme Bryce Segal
Graeme Segal in Berkeley, 1982
Born	(1941-12-21) 21 December 1941
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	University of Sydney St Catherine's College, Oxford
Known for	Atiyah–Segal completion theorem Segal conjecture
Spouse	Marina Warner
Awards	Pólya Prize (1990) Sylvester Medal (2010)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	St John's College, Cambridge All Souls College, Oxford
Thesis	Equivariant K-theory  (1967)
Doctoral advisor	Michael Atiyah

Graeme Bryce Segal FRS (born 21 December 1941) is an Australian mathematician, and professor at the University of Oxford.

Biography

Segal was educated at the University of Sydney, where he received his BSc degree in 1961. He went on to receive his D.Phil. in 1967 from St Catherine's College, Oxford; his thesis, written under the supervision of Michael Atiyah, was titled Equivariant K-theory.

His thesis was in the area of equivariant K-theory. The Atiyah–Segal completion theorem in that subject was a major motivation for the Segal conjecture, which he formulated. He has made many other contributions to homotopy theory in the past four decades, including an approach to infinite loop spaces. He was also a pioneer of elliptic cohomology, which is related to his interest in topological quantum field theory.

Segal was an Invited Speaker at the ICM in 1970 in Nice and in 1990 in Kyoto. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1982 and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was awarded the Sylvester Medal by the Royal Society in 2010.

He was Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at the University of Cambridge from 1990 to 1999. Segal was elected the President of the London Mathematical Society in 2011.

He is married to writer, Marina Warner. They live in London.

Books

• Loop Groups (Oxford Mathematical Monographs). New ed. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-853561-9 (with Andrew Pressley).
• Lectures on Lie groups and Lie algebras (London Mathematical Society Student texts Vol. 32). 5th ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 0-521-49579-2 (with Ian G. Macdonald and Roger Carter).

External links

• Dr Graeme Segal FRS Archived 28 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford
• Graeme Segal at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Topology, Geometry and Quantum Field Theory. Proceedings of the 2002 Oxford Symposium in Honour of the 60th Birthday of Graeme Segal.