Pierre Duchet: research in action

Mathematician Pierre Duchet died on October 27 last year at his home in Mexico City. A friend of the editorial team at Tangente, this specialist in combinatorics, discrete mathematics and especially graph theory was always eager to share his work with younger generations.

In 1990, together with his close collaborator Pierre Audin, he developed one of the first major initiatives to give secondary school students access to the world of research: MATh.en.JEANS (its credo: "Doing mathematics by pairing schools and exploring new approaches to knowledge"). More active than ever and now operating on a considerable scale, the association gives students the invaluable opportunity to undertake an introductory research project throughout the school year, working with an experienced mathematician, and—in what is an exceptional opportunity for them—to present their results at an annual conference. In his own professional work, Pierre built bridges between kernel theory and perfect graph theory. More recently, he had been investigating the foundations of concepts in discrete convexity. He supervised around ten doctoral theses in combinatorics and one in mathematics education. Pierre possessed boundless inventiveness and had projects mapped out through the end of the century. Mathematics has lost one of its most valued ambassadors. In tribute to him, Tangente is making available on its website the fascinating, wide-ranging interview he kindly gave us in 2009 (see also Mathématiques discrètes et Combinatoire, Bibliothèque Tangente 39, 2010, pages 126–134).