Biography

Born on August 12 1930 in Uccle, Belgium, Jacques Tits was a mathematician whose work focused on geometry, algebra and group theory.

Jacques Tits died on December 5 2021.

Training and professional career

  • 1948-1956 : Boursier du Fonds national (belge) de la recherche scientifique (Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research)
  • 1956-1962 : Assistant then lecturer at the University of Brussels
  • 1962-1964 : Professor at the University of Brussels
  • 1964-1974 : Professor at the University of Bonn
  • 1973-2000 : Professor at the Collège de France, Chair of Group Theory
  • 1980-1999 : Editor-in-Chief of Publications Mathématiques de l'I.H.E.S.
  • Member of the Reading Committee of the Comptes rendus de l'Académie

Awards and honors

  • 1955 : Prix scientifique Interfacultataire L. Empain Scientific Prize
  • 1958 : Wettrems Prize from the Académie de Belgique
  • 1965 : Belgian government's decennial mathematics prize
  • 1976 : Grand prix des Sciences mathématiques et physiques de l'Académie des sciences
  • 1977 : Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
  • 1979 : Honorary doctorate from Ghent University
  • 1979 : Member of the French Academy of Sciences
  • 1988 : Foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences
  • 1988 : Founding member of the Academia Europaea
  • 1988 : Honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn
  • 1991 : Foreign Associate of the Royal Academy of Belgium
  • 1992 : Doctor honoris causa of the University of Louvain
  • 1992 : Foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1992 : Foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences
  • 1993 : Honorary member of the London Mathematical Society
  • 1993 : Commandeur des Palmes académiques
  • 1993 : Wolf Prize for Mathematics
  • 1995 : Member of the order " pour le Mérite " für Wissenschaften und Künste (RFA)
  • 1995 : Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
  • 2001 : Officer of the National Order of Merit
  • 2008 : ABEL Prize