Adrien DOUADY was born in 1935. After receiving his Ph.d. in mathematics in the field of complex analytic geometry, he later joined the University Paris-Sud (Orsay). A recipient of the Ampere prize, he was a member of the French Academy of Sciences, as well as of the highly influential informal Bourbaki group. Throughout his life, he remained interested in several areas. Yet his odyssey always brought back to complex numbers. He passed away in 2006, and is notably survived by his wife, Regine Douady.
Regine Douady, born in 1934, after a Ph.d. in the didactics of mathematics, she became a lecturer at the University Paris Denis-Diderot, as well as the head of the IREM (Institut de Recherche sur l' Enseignement des Mathematiques). She was made a chevalier dans l'ordre des palmes academiques. Now retired, she has ceaselessly endeavoured to introduce into teaching the necessity to address concepts from different standpoints-the motivating idea behind this book.
