Andrée Ehresmann (née Bastiani) (9 July 1935 – 21 August 2026) was a French mathematician who specialised in category theory.
Life Ehresmann obtained her baccalauréat in 1952; subsequently, she studied in Marseille and Paris.
She was a researcher at CNRS from 1957 to 1963. She was awarded a Ph.D. in 1962 at University of Paris under the supervision of Gustave Choquet. Her thesis was entitled Différentiabilité dans les espaces localement convexes. Distructures [Differentiability in locally convex spaces. Distructures].
In 1967 she became a professor at IRCAM, at the University of Picardie Jules Verne; after she retired, she became emerita professor.
Ehresmann died in Amiens on 21 August 2026, at the age of 91. Research Ehresmann published over 100 works on Analysis (Differential Calculus and Infinite-dimensional Distributions, Guiding Systems and Optimization Problems), Category Theory (with her husband, Charles Ehresmann: sketches and internal categories, multiple categories, closed monoidal structures) and the modeling of complex autonomous systems (Memory Scalable Systems, including the MENS model for neuro-cognitive systems).
She developed, with Jean-Paul Vanbremeersch a model of Memory Evolutive Systems, which proposes a mathematical model for 'living' systems with a hierarchy of complex components with multiple temporalities, such as biological, neuro-cognitive, or social systems. Based on a theory of 'dynamic' categories, evolving memory systems can analyze complexity, emergence and self-organization.
Ehresmann was the director of the mathematical journal Cahiers de Topologie et Géométrie Différentielle Catégoriques.
Notes and references
External links Intervention d'Andrée Ehresmann à la conférence «Mathématiques innovantes 2010»