Louis de Branges de Bourcia (born 1932) is a French mathematician.

De Branges was born in Paris, France. He lives in the USA and works at the Department of Mathematics of the Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.

In 1985 he proved the Bieberbach conjecture. In June 2004, he announced he had a solution to the Riemann hypothesis (often called the greatest unsolved problem in mathematics) and published the 23 page proof on his website. See Apology for the proof of the Riemann hypothesis (http://www.math.purdue.edu/ftp_pub/branges/apology.pdf).

The Riemann hypothesis proof also includes some history of his ancestors, and de Branges has taken to calling himself "Louis de Branges de Bourcia". He more or less promises that if he wins the Clay Mathematics Institute million dollar prize for the solution of this problem he would use it to restore the ruined chateau de Bourcia for use as a mathematical research institute.

External link

• http://www.math.purdue.edu/~branges/
• Purdue Univerity press release (http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/2004/040608.DeBranges.Riemann.html)