Serge Lang, a leading mathematical theorist who became better known for his jousts with nonmathematicians on social and political issues than for his work in geometry and the properties of numbers, died Sept. 12 in Berkeley, Calif. He was 78.
The Yale University mathematics department, where Lang taught for 33 years before retiring last year, announced the death but gave no cause.
Throughout his life, Lang railed against inaccuracy and imprecision and felt that the scientific establishment unfairly suppressed dissident ideas.
Beginning around 1977, he adopted a more activist approach, writing letters and articles – sometimes even buying newspaper ads – to challenge research that he considered unscrupulous or sloppy. He would pull together his writings and add news articles, congressional testimony and other documents into what he called files and mail the compiled documents to scientists, journalists and government officials.
“He just thought by presenting everyone all of the primary documents, everyone else would be able to see what he saw,” said Kenneth Ribet, a professor of mathematics at the University of California-Berkeley.
Lang started his career as one of the nation’s leading thinkers in fundamental mathematics, using aspects of geometry to study the properties of numbers, and evolved into a gifted but challenging teacher.
