Serge Lang (1927-2005) was one of the top mathematicians of our time. He was
born in Paris in 1927, and moved with his family to California, where he
graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1943. He subsequently graduated from
California Institute of Technology in 1946, and received a doctorate from
Princeton University in 1951 before holding faculty positions at the University
of Chicago and Columbia University (1955-1971). At the time of his death he was
professor emeritus of Mathematics at Yale University. An excellent writer, Lang
has made innumerable and invaluable contributions in diverse fields of
mathematics. He was perhaps best known for his work in