
Goro Shimura has died - ColinWright
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goro_Shimura
======
xrd
Only tangentially related, but reading over Taniyama's wikipedia page, I'm
fascinated to see that he adopted the alternative pronunciation of his name.

"Taniyama's given name 豊 was intended to be read as Toyo, but was frequently
misread as the more common form Yutaka, which he eventually adopted as his own
name."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutaka_Taniyama#cite_ref-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutaka_Taniyama#cite_ref-1)

His family name has characters which can have strange pronunciations as well.
I remember being so confused that Hasegawa would be written: 長谷川 (literally
"long valley river") that you would expect to be Nagatanigawa. Why shouldn't
Taniyama's name be Seyama to follow along? I wonder if his parents anticipated
his struggles and gave him names which suited his path.

These things about Japanese make it seem less prescriptive than it appears at
first glance, and more beautiful.

But, what a sad end to a brilliant thinker.

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ColinWright
For those who don't recognise the name, Gorō Shimura was a Japanese
mathematician. He is the "Shimura" in the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture, which
was what ultimately led to Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

~~~
OneWordSoln
The excellent Horizon documentary, "Fermat's Last Theorem", about Wiles' proof
has some great interview footage with Shimura where he even discusses his
sadness and being perplexed at Taniyama's sudden suicide.

When asked about Wiles' proof proving their conjecture, he quips with a sly
grin: "Well, my first reaction was, 'I told you so.'"

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sn41
Shimura's biography "Map of my life" is a fascinating read, especially on his
tragic friendship with Taniyama which led to the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture.

~~~
OneWordSoln
He mentions in the Horizon "Fermat's Last Theorem" documentary that Taniyama
was "not a careful person as a mathematician. He made a lot of mistakes, but
he made mistakes in a good direction, so eventually he got [to] the right
answer, and I tried to imitate him, but I found out that it is very difficult
to make good mistakes." He says it with a wry grin.

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raverbashing
And since then their conjecture (now proven) was expanded to become the
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modularity_theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modularity_theorem)

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ckozlowski
Source: [https://www.math.princeton.edu/news/professor-emeritus-
goro-...](https://www.math.princeton.edu/news/professor-emeritus-goro-
shimura-1930-2019)

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charlysl
I recommend reading the wonderful book "Fermat's Last Theorem" to understand
the historical context of his contributions to math.

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baijum
There is no photo of the mathematician in the Wikipedia page!

