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James Milne (mathematician)

James Milne (mathematician) 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 James Milne (mathematician) rather than just read about it. In short: James S. Milne (born 10 October 1942) is a New Zealand mathematician working in arithmetic geometry.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

James S. Milne (born 10 October 1942) is a New Zealand mathematician working in arithmetic geometry.

Life

Milne attended high school in Invercargill in New Zealand until 1959, and then studied at the University of Otago in Dunedin (B.A. 1964) and Harvard University (Masters 1966, Ph.D. 1967 under John Tate). From then to 1969 he was a lecturer at University College London. After that he was at the University of Michigan, as Assistant Professor (1969–1972), Associate Professor (1972–1977), Professor (1977–2000), and Professor Emeritus (since 2000). He has also been a visiting professor at King's College London, at the Institut des hautes études scientifiques in Paris (1975, 1978), at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California (1986–87), and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey (1976–77, 1982, 1988). In his dissertation, entitled "The conjectures of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer for constant abelian varieties over function fields," he proved the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton–Dyer for constant abelian varieties over function fields in one variable over a finite field. He also gave the first examples of nonzero abelian varieties with finite Tate–Shafarevich group. He went on to study Shimura varieties (certain hermitian symmetric spaces, low-dimensional examples being modular curves) and motives. For 2025 Milne was awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition of the American Mathematical Society. His students include Piotr Blass, Michael Bester, Matthew DeLong, Pierre Giguere, William Hawkins Jr, Matthias Pfau, Victor Scharaschkin, Stefan Treatman, Anthony Vazzana, and Wafa Wei. Milne is also an avid mountain climber.

Writings Étale Cohomology. Princeton Mathematical Series. Vol. 33. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1980. ISBN 0-691-08238-3. MR 0559531. Abelian Varieties, Jacobian Varieties, in Arithmetic Geometry Proc. Conference Storrs 1984, Springer 1986 With Pierre Deligne, Arthur Ogus, Kuang-yen Shih, Hodge Cycles, Motives and Shimura Varieties, Springer Verlag, Lecture Notes in Mathematics vol. 900, 1982 (therein by Deligne: Tannakian Categories) Arithmetic Duality Theorems, Academic Press, Perspectives in Mathematics, 1986 Editor with Laurent Clozel, Automorphic Forms, Shimura Varieties and L-Functions, 2 volumes, Elsevier 1988 (Conference University of Michigan, 1988) Elliptic Curves, BookSurge Publishing 2006 Shimura Varieties and Motives in Jannsen, Kleiman, Serre (editor) motif, Proc. Symp. Pure vol. 55 Math, AMS, 1994

References

The original article was a Google translation of the corresponding article in German Wikipedia.

External links Personal website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with James Milne (mathematician)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what James Milne (mathematician) 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 James Milne (mathematician) 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 James Milne (mathematician) 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 James Milne (mathematician)

In research
James Milne (mathematician) 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 James Milne (mathematician) 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
James Milne (mathematician) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, Arithmetic geometers, Harvard University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for James Milne (mathematician) 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.
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How to study James Milne (mathematician) in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what James Milne (mathematician) means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain James Milne (mathematician) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is James Milne (mathematician) in simple terms?

James S. Milne (born 10 October 1942) is a New Zealand mathematician working in arithmetic geometry.

Why does James Milne (mathematician) 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 James Milne (mathematician)?

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 James Milne (mathematician).

Tags

  • 1942 births
  • Arithmetic geometers
  • Harvard University alumni
  • Living people
  • New Zealand mathematicians
  • People from Invercargill
  • University of Michigan faculty
  • University of Otago alumni

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