Jean-Pierre Serre has made outstanding contributions to the fields of algebraic geometry, number theory, and topology. His work has greatly influenced the development of these areas and was published in the most prestigious journals, like the Annals of Mathematics, Inventiones mathematicae and the Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS. His many brilliant books are standard references and have had a great impact on the development of their areas.

From 1956 until his retirement in 1994 he was a professor at the College de France, where he now is an honorary professor. He received the Fields medal (1954, at age twenty-seven, the youngest Fields medallist ever), the Wolf prize (2000) and was the first recipient of the Abel prize (2003). He received numerous other awards, among them the Balzan prize (1985) and the Steele prize (1995). He is a member of several scientific academies (France, US, Norway, Sweden, Russia, the Royal Society, ...) and has received many honorary degrees (Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, ...).

Speakers in the Distinguished Lecture Series (DLS) have made outstanding contributions to their field of mathematics. The DLS consists of a series of three one-hour lectures.