mathematics

Idris Assani

Idris Assani is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Idris Assani rather than just read about it. In short: Idris Assani is a Beninese mathematician, who works as a professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although born in Niger, Assani is Beninese.

Key takeaways

Idris Assani belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Idris Assani to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Idris Assani from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Idris Assani is a Beninese mathematician, who works as a professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although born in Niger, Assani is Beninese. He was educated in France, earning a bachelor's degree in commerce from Paris Dauphine University in 1981, a doctorate of the third cycle in mathematics from Pierre and Marie Curie University in 1981, and a doctor of science from Pierre and Marie Curie University in 1986, under the supervision of Antoine Brunel. He joined the UNC mathematics department in 1988 but, allegedly for racist reasons, was turned down for tenure. He appealed through the courts, won his case and gained tenure in 1995, and was promoted to full professor one year later. In doing so he became the first Black tenured associate mathematics professor and the first Black full mathematics professor at UNC, as well as the only mathematician there to be promoted from associate to full so quickly. Assani's research concerns ergodic theory. He is the author of the research monograph Wiener Wintner Ergodic Theorems (World Scientific, 2003), about mathematics related to the Wiener–Wintner theorem, and is also the editor of several volumes of collected papers. He has made numerous contributions in the area of nonconventional ergodic averages as well as the return times theorem. Some of the highlights of his research contributions include pointwise convergence of averages along cubes, being “the first complete pointwise convergence result obtained in the theory of nonconventional ergodic averages”, as well as the introduction of Wiener-Wintner Dynamical System and, which is a class of dynamical system where one can obtain easier proofs of pointwise convergence results in more general setting (with difficult proofs), such as J. Bourgain’s double recurrence theorem as well as the return times theorem. In 2012, Assani was named as one of the inaugural fellows of the American Mathematical Society.

References

External links Home page Idris Assani publications indexed by Google Scholar Idris Assani Author Profile on MathSciNet.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Idris Assani

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Idris Assani claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Idris Assani before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Idris Assani ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Idris Assani

In research: Idris Assani appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Idris Assani in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Idris Assani is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American mathematicians, 20th-century Nigerian mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Idris Assani outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Idris Assani in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Idris Assani means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Idris Assani out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Idris Assani in simple terms?

Idris Assani is a Beninese mathematician, who works as a professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although born in Niger, Assani is Beninese.

Why does Idris Assani matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Idris Assani?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Idris Assani.