An early flirt with Algebraic Geometry

My first forays in research began in algebraic geometry (1965), through two masterly advanced courses by François BRUHAT and Jean-Pierre SERRE at Ecole Normale Sup. [Paris], where they brilliantly spoke about ZARISKI’s topology, arithmetics, corps de classes, algebraic curves, etc. Fascinated by these topics, I asked J.P. SERRE to direct my first steps towards a PhD, and he gave me an uncompromising massive reading list, which I completed in 1966, during a one year stay at Harvard Graduate School, supported by a Fulbright scholarship. My young Harvard advisor was no fan of french algebraic geometry, and could offer me no guidance through DIEUDONNE’s massive accounts of GROTHENDIECK seminars. I kept reading on my own, and pursued, in tight collaboration with Pierre BERTHELOT, the joint writing of “Elements of algebraic geometry”, an introductory monograph published in 1967 [1], based on F. BRUHAT’s advanced courses and our discussions with him.