On January 2, 2025, the eminent professor and professor emeritus of the University of Salamanca died Pedro Luis García Pérez, who has been without a doubt one of the pioneers of differential geometry in Spain, and one of the most outstanding Spanish mathematicians, both for his research and management work.
Pedro Luis was born in 1938 in Cartagena. He obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Science (Physics Section) from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1960 and Doctor in Mathematics from the University of Barcelona in 1966. After a long academic career in several universities, both Spanish and foreign, in 1971 he joined the University of Salamanca as Professor of Geometry and Topology until his retirement in 2008. His CV is too extensive to do it justice in this brief review, but as an example it is impossible not to mention that he was President of the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society (RSME) in the period 1982 -1988, in addition to being an Academician of the Royal Academy of Exact Physical and Natural Sciences of Spainamong many other distinctions.
García Pérez’s mathematical research was innovative in that he incorporated sophisticated methods of differential geometry to the study of problems of interest in physics. Pedro Luis was a master in the study of the interactions between geometry and physics, more specifically in those in which the so-called geometry symplectic (or multisymplectic) played a role. It is also worth highlighting his contributions, for example, to classical field theory as well as his extensive knowledge in such fundamental subjects as the theory of quantization geometric design by Bertram Kostant and Jean-Marie Souriau from the 1970s, the latter being one of the few experts in Spain in its beginnings.
Today, symplectic geometry is a central branch of mathematics, and García Pérez was one of the visionaries that Spain had in this area in the 1960s and 1970s, a time in which he published in world-renowned journals such as Communications in Mathematical Physics, at a time when in Spain it was still very rare to achieve this type of international recognition.
With these brief lines we pay tribute to one of the historical figures of mathematics in Spainand in particular to one of the great experts in the interaction of geometry and physics that our country has had. We cannot forget, to conclude, his great human quality and his exquisite education. As well as his commitment to the mathematical community of our country.
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