SWISS TOPOLOGY

Georges de Rham (1903 – 1990)

was a Swiss mathematician, known for his contributions to differential topology. He is known for developing de Rham cohomology, a mathematical framework that bridges algebraic and differential topology, providing a computationally effective way to represent and analyze topological properties of smooth manifolds.

Michel Kervaire (1927–2007)

Michel Kervaire was a French-Swiss mathematician known for his work in topology. He made important discoveries about the structure of high-dimensional spaces, especially through the Kervaire invariant, a concept that challenged mathematicians for decades. His work had a lasting impact on geometry and the study of manifolds.

André Haefliger (1929–2023)

was a Swiss mathematician known for his significant contributions to topology. He is particularly recognized for the Haefliger-Zeeman unknotting theorem, which explores conditions for unknotted embeddings of spheres in higher-dimensional spaces. Haefliger also made important advances in the study of foliations and differentiable manifolds, laying groundwork for modern research in these areas.

Armand Borel (1923 – 2003)

was a Swiss mathematician, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He worked in algebraic topology, in the theory of Lie groups, and was one of the creators of the contemporary theory of linear algebraic groups.