Ferran Sunyer Balaguer:

Exhibition at the Palau Robert (Barcelona, Spain) 

(Visited the 22/02/2014)

From Wikipedia (translated from Catalan wikipedia):

 Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer (Figueres , 1912 - Barcelona, ​​27 December 1967 ) was a self-taught mathematician who worked in Catalonia since the late thirties until his death . His contribution to the sciences was important and his work received the recognition of Catalan and Spanish institutions - that were awarded in several occasions and the international mathematical community .
Ferran Sunyer was born with a severe atrophy of the nervous system which prevented him from attending school and forced him to all kinds of activities help to develop basic and always had to move around in a wheelchair . This severe physical disability forced him to rely on his mother , Angela Balaguer , since his father died when he was two. Then his cousins ​​Mary and Mary of the Angels Carbona they care until her death . He lived between Barcelona and Vilajoana ( the town of Garrigàs Alt Emporda ) .

Self-taught , Ferran Sunyer began in mathematics and physics from the books of his cousin Ferdinand Carbona chemical engineering student . He made the first studies in mathematics at the end of 1930 , with notes on the accounts Rendus Académie des Sciences in Paris , backed by Jacques Hadamard , then one of the world 's most renowned mathematicians . After World War II , came into contact with such important mathematical research as Szolem Mandelbrojt Jean- Pierre Kahane , Waclaw Sierpinski , Yves Meyer , Paul Malliavin , Mascart Henry and John Angus MacIntyre , among others.

Ferran Sunyer published over 30 research articles journals Spanish, French and U.S. mainly. He was awarded several prizes from the Royal Academy of Exact Sciences , Physical and Natural Sciences of Madrid , the Catalan Studies Institute and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas , including the Premio Franco de las Ciencias 1955. As of 1957 , despite physical limitations , he attended as a guest at various international conferences .

Her disability severely limited the possibilities professionals . But , however , he was collaborating investigator and later the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and worked for years with a contract for the Office of Naval Research ( ONR ) of the Ministry of the United States Navy . In a time of great restrictions and isolation in Spain, Ferran Sunyer was undoubtedly one of the most renowned mathematicians abroad.

Ferran Sunyer is an example of overcoming and fighting against the greatest odds and intelligence in the service of science and the scientific community . And his family , who spared no efforts so that he could perform the investigation it is the values ​​of family solidarity : as could never write all the articles in mathematics, a language very specific and complicated formulas , dictates his mother or his cousins ​​, who were ordered to transfer them to the paper.

(Text translated from catalan wikipedia using Google translate)
Another available biography of Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer: Springer: Birkhäuser Mathematics: http://www.springer.com/birkhauser/mathematics?SGWID=0-40292-6-141489-0
More information (catalan language) from Fundació Ferran Sunyer Balaguer at: http://ffsb.espais.iec.cat/biografia-de-ferran-sunyer/


Video from TV3:

Ferran Sunyer Balaguer: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP5ozImCruA

Contract NAVY - Ferran Sunyer (1966) for:
"Properties of a Space of Entire Functions of a Infinite Order"

(Photo taken from the exhibition)