Jacques-Louis Lions, 1928 - 2001
Jacques-Louis Lions was born in 1928 in Grasse in the Maritime Alps. He attended the University of Paris and received his doctorate in science from there in 1954. He then taught at the University of Paris and the University of Nancy until 1972.
From there, Lions went to the College de France where he served as the chairman of analysis and systems control. He was rewarded with position as a Commander of the Legion of Honor and also served as president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the late 90's. Lions was a professor emeritus at the College de France since 1999 and a former president of the French National Center of Space Studies and the French Academy of Sciences. In the years before he died, Lions worked as a director and advisor to industry, advising companies such as France Telecom and Dassault Systemes. He wrote many books and papers on developing methods and systematic theories to analyze and solve partial differential equations.
For those publications, Lions was honored by universities and scientific societies such as when he won the Japan Prize in 1991, and the Lagrange Prize from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999.
Jacques-Louis Lions died in Paris on May 17, 2001 at the age of 73.