Don Zagier Article Index for
Don
Website Links For
Don
 

Information About

Don Zagier




Bonn , Germany , and a professor at the '' Collège De France '' in Paris , France .

He was born in Heidelberg , Germany . He grew up in the United States , and studied for three years at M.I.T. , completing his bachelor's and master's degree and being named a Putnam Fellow in 1967 at the age of 16. He wrote a doctoral dissertation on Characteristic Class es under Friedrich Hirzebruch , and later collaborated with Hirzebruch in work on Hilbert Modular Surface s.

One of his most famous results is a joint work with Benedict Gross (the so-called Gross-Zagier Formula ). This formula relates the first derivative of the Complex L-series of an Elliptic Curve evaluated at 1 to the height of a certain Heegner Point . This extremely important theorem has many applications including implying cases of the Birch And Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture along with being a key ingredient to Dorian Goldfeld 's proof of the Class Number Problem .

He also is known for discovering a short and elementary proof of Fermat's Theorem On Sums Of Two Squares {Link without Title} {Link without Title} .

He won the Cole Prize in 1987.

See also: Gross-Zagier Theorem .


EXTERNAL LINKS