Heisuke Hironaka obituary: mathematician who smoothed out geometry’s complexities | Nature

His awe-inspiring proof for the resolution of singularities — such as peaks, edges and self-crossings — revolutionized algebraic geometry.

Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives Heisuke Hironaka, a prominent figure in algebraic geometry, was renowned for his landmark 1964 proof of the “resolution of singularities”. His work provides a way to unravel complicated phenomena in geometric objects, such as cusps, spikes and self-intersections. This fundamental result is a standard ingredient in research across a wide swathe of mathematics. Hironaka has died aged 94. The length and complexity of his 1964 proof inspired awe. For this work, Hironaka received the Fields Medal in 1970. His mentor Alexander Grothendieck, one of the…

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