Congratulations to Dr. Rahim Moosa, professor of pure mathematics, whose research was featured at the 2025 Bourbaki Seminar.
“It was deeply gratifying to have my work presented by an esteemed colleague – Amador Martin Pizarro of the University of Freiburg – to this storied and distinguished seminar,” Moosa says.
The research presented at the seminar was a joint work with James Freitag (University of Illinois-Chicago) and Remi Jaoui (CNRS Lyon) that appeared in Inventiones Mathematicae in 2022. “We applied methods from a branch of mathematical logic called model theory to answer questions about the geometry of solutions to algebraic differential equations,” Moosa explains. “The main theorem is that if you have an algebraic differential equation with the property that any three distinct solutions are algebraically independent from each other, then in fact any number of solutions will be independent.”
The Bourbaki Seminar was founded by a group of enthusiastic young French mathematicians in the 1930s who set out to publish a series of six academic books defining the field of mathematics from scratch. They took their name from a fictional character, “Nicolas Bourbaki,” who had become an inside joke among contemporary French math students. While WWII slowed the group down, they completed the series in 1958, and immediately set out to write revisions of the first books that were already out of date.
Meetings of the Seminar were known for their raucous, anarchic quality, with members frequently interrupting and arguing with each other. “[A] Bourbaki member is supposed to take an interest in everything he hears,” writes founding member Jean Dieudonné. “If he is a fanatical algebraist and says ‘I am interested in algebra and nothing else,’ fair enough, but he will never be a member of Bourbaki. One has to take an interest in everything at once. Not to be capable of creating in all fields, that is all right. There is no question of asking everyone to be a universal mathematician; this is reserved for a small number of geniuses. But still, one should take an interest in everything….”
The Bourbaki Seminar is still held annually in Paris, and is considered one of the most prestigious places a pure mathematician can have their work featured.
“Being featured at the Bourbaki seminar is one of the greatest honours a mathematician can receive,” says Dr. David McKinnon, chair of Pure Mathematics. “Rahim has earned his way to that honour with his hard work and seminal insights, and I’m overjoyed that he’s been recognized in this way.”