Michael Herman

Michael Robert Herman (1942 to 2000) was a French American mathematician and one of the leading experts on the theory of dynamical systems. Born in New York City and educated in France, he studied at the Ecole polytechnique and was among the first members of the Centre de Mathematiques created there by Laurent Schwartz. He earned his doctorate in 1976 at the Paris-Sud 11 University under Harold Rosenberg. In 1979 he introduced the objects now called Herman rings. He received the Salem Prize in 1976 and was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1978 in Helsinki and in 1998 in Berlin. Among his students was Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, who won the Fields Medal in 1994.