mathematics

Roger Temam

Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam rather than just read about it. In short: Roger Meyer Temam (born 19 May 1940) is a French mathematician and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics working in the fields of numerical analysis, nonlinear partial differential equations and fluid mechanics. He is known for his contributions to the theory of the Navier–Stokes equations and to numerical analysis.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Roger Meyer Temam (born 19 May 1940) is a French mathematician and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics working in the fields of numerical analysis, nonlinear partial differential equations and fluid mechanics. He is known for his contributions to the theory of the Navier–Stokes equations and to numerical analysis. He has published over 400 articles, as well as 12 (authored or co-authored) books. The influence of Roger Temam in the development of applied mathematics in France, as well as all over the world, has been essential. His scientific aura and influence can also be measured in the number of doctoral theses which were written under his guidance, both in France and in the United States. According to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, Temam has also supervised 127 doctoral theses, the second-highest number supervised by an individual in the field of mathematics. He has a total of 654 mathematical "descendants," including Denis Serre.

Early life and education Roger Temam was born in Tunis, into a Jewish family. He moved to France at the age of 17 and enrolled at the University of Paris – the Sorbonne to study Mathematics. In 1960, he became an assistant at the Faculty of Mechanics of the Faculty of Sciences of Paris. There, Temam worked under the direction of Jacques-Louis Lions, earned his agrégation in mathematics in 1962, and completed his doctorate (Thèse d'Etat) in 1967. After completing his studies, Temam became a Maître de Conférences (Associate Professor) at Paris-Sud University, Orsay in 1968 and later a full Professor where he remained until 2003. He was also a Maître de Conférences at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris from 1968 to 1986. Together with Professors Jacques Deny and Charles Goulaouic, he founded the Laboratory of Numerical and Functional Analysis in Orsay, which he directed from 1972 to 1988. He was the director of the doctoral program in Numerical Analysis at Orsay from 1975 to 1994, and director of the Mathematics Laboratory at Orsay between 1977 and 1980. He was also a member of the scientific council of CISI from 1989 to 1995 and served multiple terms on the National Council of Universities. In parallel, he also served as a scientific advisor at INRIA from 1968 to 1984 and at CISI (the CEA's computing-engineering subsidiary) from 1974 to 2000. He co-organized multiple national and international scientific events, and was a member of the editorial boards of several prestigious scientific journals, including ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis. In 1983, Temam co-founded the French Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles (SMAI), analogous to the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and served as its first president. Between 1983 and 1987, Temam was a member of the National Committee for Mathematics of the CNRS, head of the "Doctoral training" expert group in mathematics. He was also one of the founders of the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) series and the chair of the steering committee of the first ICIAM meeting held in Paris in 1987; and then the chair of the standing committee of the second ICIAM meeting held in Washington, D.C., in 1991. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the mathematical journal M2AN from 1986 to 1997.

In addition to his scientific activities in France, Temam came to Indiana University in 1986 to work with Ciprian Foias. In Bloomington, Indiana, he was offered a position at the university while retaining his roles in France. This is how Temam became a professor of mathematics and the director of the Institute for Scientific Computing and Applied Mathematics (ISCAM) at Indiana University since 1986 (co-director with Ciprian Foias from 1986 to 1992). He was promoted to Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2013.

Scientific work Roger Temam's scientific work lies at the intersection of mathematical analysis, numerical analysis, and scientific computing. It encompasses mathematical modeling and analysis, as well as the development of new numerical methods. His first work, carried out in his doctoral thesis, focused on the method of fractional steps. He since has "continued to explore and develop new directions and techniques" including:

calculus of variations, and the notion of duality, developing the mathematical framework for discontinuous (in displacement) solutions; a concept later used for his works on the mathematical theory of plasticity; mathematical formulation of the equilibrium of a plasma in a cavity, expressed as a nonlinear free boundary problem; Korteweg–de Vries equation; Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation; Euler equations in a bounded domain; optimal control of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations as a tool for the control of turbulence; boundary layer phenomena for incompressible flows. Helped establish the modern theory of infinite-dimensional dynamical systems. In particular, he investigated the existence of finite-dimensional global attractors for many dissipative equations in mathematical physics, including the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Together with Peter Constantin, Ciprian Foias, and Oscar Manley, he obtained an almost sharp, physically meaningful upper bound on the dimension of the global attractor. Co-founded the concepts of inertial manifolds together with Ciprian Foias and George R. Sell and of exponential attractors with Alp Eden, Ciprian Foias and Basil Nicolaenko Temam's later applications concern the study of geophysical flows, the atmosphere and oceans. This started in the 1990s by collaboration with Jacques-Louis Lions and Shouhong Wang. He has published over 400 articles, as well as 12 (authored or co-authored) books.

Of all Mathematics advisors recorded by the Mathematical Genealogy Project database, Temam has the second-largest number of doctoral students. More than 30 of his students are now full professors all over the world, and have themselves many "descendants."

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roger Temam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam

In research: Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam 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: Roger Temam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940 births, 20th-century French mathematicians, 21st-century French mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Roger Temam in simple terms?

Why does Roger Temam 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 Roger Temam?

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 Roger Temam.