My Thought on Goro Shimura

Shimura's autobiography written in Japanese.

Goro Shimura, Princeton’s Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, died on Friday, May 3, in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 89 (Ref. 1). I found a blog (Ref. 2) intended to honor Shimura’s life and legacy and wrote my thought on him there. My contribution (the second entry in Ref. 2) is quoted below.

It is quite sad to hear about the passing of Professor Shimura, but his legacy will continue forever through his achievements.
A little relationship between Professor Shimura and me is as follows: Haruko Iwasaki, who is one of my classmates in elementary school and was a professor of Japanese language at Princeton University in her thirties, was once invited to Professor Shimura’s home because of their common native country. After moving to the University of California, Haruko got a copy of Professor Shimura’s autobiographical book, “The Map of My Life” (Springer, 2008), from a person who came from an overseas country. This happened because the latter heard that the former had been an acquaintance with Professor Shimura at Princeton University. After that, Haruko became Professor Emerita, came back to Japan, and gave me the book, saying “You’re the only scientific person I know in Japan.” I enjoyed the book very much and wrote a review of it (https://ideaisaac.blogspot.com/2011/10/mathematicians-unique-autobiography.html) with the bottom line, “Most books I read in the afternoons this summer and early autumn made me sleepy, but Shimura’s autobiography was a complete exception.”

References

1. Liz Fuller-Wright, “Professor Emeritus Goro Shimura 1930–2019,” https://www.math.princeton.edu/news/professor-emeritus-goro-shimura-1930-2019.
2. In Memoriam • Princeton University Employees, https://blogs.princeton.edu/memorial/2019/05/goro-shimura/.