Pierre Samuel

Pierre Samuel, who lived from 12 September 1921 to 23 August 2009, was a French mathematician known for his work in commutative algebra and its applications to algebraic geometry. After studying at the Lycee Janson-de-Sailly and the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, he took a doctorate at Princeton University in 1947 under Oscar Zariski. With Zariski he wrote the two-volume classic Commutative Algebra, and he also wrote books on projective geometry and algebraic number theory. A member of the Bourbaki group and later professor emeritus at Paris-Sud University in Orsay, he was also active on environmental and arms-control questions. His doctoral students included Lucien Szpiro and Daniel Lazard.