Hommage à Jean Fresnel

Direction | le Sep 01, 2025 à 11:31 AM

Jean Fresnel passed away on 12 August 2025. Throughout his long career, which began in the late 1960s, he played a leading role in mathematics in Bordeaux, both as a researcher and as a teacher. After his retirement in 2004, he remained an active member of the local mathematical community, which he continued to frequent assiduously until his final weeks.

On the scientific front, Jean Fresnel built up a team around p-adic geometry in just a few years, particularly with the help of Marius van der Put (University of Groningen), producing basic and advanced works written in his beautiful handwriting and always embellished with engravings, works that have accompanied many young and not-so-young researchers. This legacy lives on with a new generation of arithmetic geometers. Jean Fresnel has more than 200 mathematician descendants. In 2004, on the occasion of his retirement, an international conference was held in his honour.

He also left his mark on the preparation for the agrégation in mathematics, notably by creating the School of Mathematics and Computer Science, which housed the preparation courses for teaching competitions, as well as the Institute for Research on Mathematics Education at the Château Lamartine site. He is also the author of several books widely used by candidates for the agrégation. This remarkable site and these books remain in the memory of many students who are now teachers or academics, as evidenced by the numerous messages received after the announcement of his death.

 Jean Fresnel also held important positions of responsibility: at the turn of the 2000s, he was vice-president of the CEVU (University Academic Council) of what was then Bordeaux 1 University, a position in which his efficiency and rigour were unanimously appreciated.

Jean Fresnel was an outstanding teacher who loved to share his knowledge. His passion for mathematics remained undiminished. In recent years, he published several research articles and wrote notes to complement his books, which he posted on his website. He regularly attended seminars on number theory and geometry, colloquiums and thesis defences.

What we will remember most is his rigour and high standards in everything he did, his quest for beauty, his generosity, and his white shirt, reminiscent of the ‘grand siècle’ he loved so much. Jean Fresnel's life and work were dedicated to knowledge and the community.