Sören A. Illman *72

Sören died Oct. 31, 2023, in Helsinki, Finland.

Born in Helsinki May 12, 1943, Sören completed a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the University of Helsinki in 1966 and a licentiate degree in 1970. He earned his doctorate in mathematics at Princeton in 1972. His dissertation topic was equivariant algebraic topology.

Sören was a member of the mathematics faculty of the University of Helsinki, and a researcher at the Academy of Finland. He worked on Hilbert’s fifth problem and Lie transformation groups. In the United States he was a visiting researcher or visiting professor at Princeton, Michigan, and Yale. He was also a visitor at Oxford, Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Kyoto University, and the Max-Planck Institute, and a researcher at the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Sweden. Seven doctoral theses were completed in Helsinki under his supervision.

Sören’s awards included the Grand Prize of the Oskar Löflund Foundation, the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation Prize, and the Silver Medal of the University of Helsinki. He served as vice president of the Finnish Mathematical Society, and was decorated a Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.

Sören is survived by his wife, Kerstin, and children Johanna and Erik.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.