The great Goro Shimura passed on May 3 in Princeton, at age 89. More than a number theorist, Shimura's mathematics also tied into the geometry of hermitian symmetric domains, via the Shimura variety. The full implications of his research takes us into the cutting edge of the study of M-theory.
In pure mathematics, Shimura's work was pivotal in setting up Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's last theorem. What was actually proven by Wiles is the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture (the modularity theorem), which as a corollary gives the treasured proof of Fermat's famous assertion.
The power of Shimura's work is amplified when combined with the work of Grothendieck. Stay tuned.
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