Sorry for that this is not a real question. But I thought people would like to know.

Alexandre Grothendieck died today: http://www.liberation.fr/sciences/2014/11/13/alexandre-grothendieck-ou-la-mort-d-un-genie-qui-voulait-se-faire-oublier_1142614

## closed as off-topic by Todd Trimble♦Nov 15 '14 at 16:30

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• For those standing largely outside of algebraic geometry, and without an $\epsilon$ of disrespect: Which characteristics led Grothendieck to being so revered? – Joseph O'Rourke Nov 14 '14 at 0:36
• @JosephO'Rourke solving a lot of problems in functional analysis, then once moved over to algebraic geometry, completely revolutionising the field (no pun intended) so that the Weil conjectures could be proved. Invented a lot of category theory just on the side. Then rethinking, after he left his job at the IHES, the foundations of homotopy theory and higher category theory. For this, see: Pursuing Stacks, Les Derivateurs, still unpublished, but containing ideas that lead to e.g. Voevodsky's proof of the Milnor and Bloch-Kato conjectures using motivic homotopy theory. – David Roberts Nov 14 '14 at 1:12
• @JosephO'Rourke And some good comments here: thebigquestions.com/2014/11/13/the-rising-sea by Steve Landsburg "He dominated pure mathematics not just through the force of his ideas — ideas that seemed eons ahead of everyone else’s — but through the force of his personality. When, around 1960, he announced his audacious plan to solve the notoriously difficult Weil conjectures by first rewriting the foundations of geometry, dozens of superb mathematicians put the rest of their careers on hold to do their parts. ... "(cont) – David Roberts Nov 14 '14 at 1:21
• "...The project’s final page count, including the twelve volumes known as SGA (Seminaire de Geometrie Algebrique) and the eight known as EGA (Elements de Geometrie Algebrique) approached 10,000 pages. The force and clarity of Grothendieck’s unique vision scream forth from nearly every one of those pages, demanding that the reader see the mathematical world in a new and completely original way — a perspective that has proved not just compelling, but unspeakably powerful." – David Roberts Nov 14 '14 at 1:21
• The amount of mathematics just alluded to is the same order of magnitude as the classification of finite simple groups. This doesn't count thousands of pages written in the 1980s as I allude above. – David Roberts Nov 14 '14 at 1:22