PIERRE CARTIER is academic by training, emeritus research director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), and research scientist and a visitor (for indeterminate term) at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) of Bures-sur-Yvette. He is currently emeritus research director at the University Paris-Diderot. He is former member of the Bourbaki group. Born in 1932 in Sedan, Professor Carier, despite his provincial background, followed the path of excellence in his studies: a secondary school in his home town, followed by the lycee Saint-Louis in Paris and then the Ecole normale superieure, and he obtained an advanced teaching degree and a doctorate in mathematics (1958). He also went to Princeton for two years; there he became acquainted with legendary figures such as Robert Oppenheimer and Andre Weil (brother of philosopher Simone Weil). Last but not least, he carried out a long military service in the marine corps against the backdrop of the Algerian war. He was then professor at the University of Strasbourg from 1961 to 1971. The years 1950–1975 were the hey-day of the Bourbaki group, of which he is one of the pillars; there he became friends with famous people like Cartan, Schwartz, Dieudonne, Chevalley, Weil, and with younger ones.
