Alexander Grothendieck, one of the great eccentric geniuses of 20th century mathematics, has died in France at the age of 86.
The maths master reached the very pinnacle of his profession before abandoning the discipline, taking up anti-war activism, retreating into the life of a recluse and refusing to share his research.
Born in 1928 in Berlin to a Russian anarchist father and a journalist mother, Grothendieck's parents left him behind in Germany while they went to fight in the Spanish Civil War.They were reunited in France, where Grothendieck was to spend most of his life, only for his father -- a Jew -- to be rounded up by the Nazis and killed in Auschwitz.
Grothendieck went on to become a revolutionary mathematician, doing ground breaking work on algebra and geometry that won him the Fields medal, known as the Nobel prize of the maths world, in 1966. More on this story in the Local
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