   jacques tits (; born 12 august 1930 in uccle) is a belgium-born french mathematician who works on group theory and geometry and who introduced tits buildings, the tits alternative, and the tits group. == career == tits was born in uccle to lÃ©on tits, a professor, and lousia andrÃ©. jacques attended the athÃ©nÃ©e of uccle and the free university of brussels. his thesis advisor was paul libois, and tits graduated with his doctorate in 1950 with the dissertation gÃ©nÃ©ralisation des groupes projectifs basÃ©s sur la notion de transitivitÃ©. his academic career includes professorships at the free university of brussels (now split into the universitÃ© libre de bruxelles and the vrije universiteit brussel) (1962-1964), the university of bonn (1964-1974) and the collÃ¨ge de france in paris, until becoming emeritus in 2000. he changed his citizenship to french in 1974 in order to teach at the collÃ¨ge de france, which at that point required french citizenship. because belgian nationality law did not allow dual nationality at the time, he renounced his belgian citizenship. he has been a member of the french academy of sciences since then. tits was an "honorary" member of the nicolas bourbaki group; as such, he helped popularize harold scott macdonald coxeter's work, introducing terms such as coxeter number, coxeter group, and coxeter graph. siobhan roberts, "donald coxeter: the man who saved geometry", toronto life, january 2003 === honors === tits received the wolf prize in mathematics in 1993, the cantor medal from the deutsche mathematiker-vereinigung (german mathematical society) in 1996, and the german distinction "pour le mÃ©rite". in 2008 he was awarded the abel prize, along with john griggs thompson, âfor their profound achievements in algebra and in particular for shaping modern group theory.â{{cite web | url = http
1930_births 20th-century_French_mathematicians 21st-century_French_mathematicians Abel_Prize_laureates Belgian_expatriates_in_France Belgian_mathematicians CollA"ge_de_France_faculty Free_University_of_Brussels_alumni Group_theorists Living_people Members_of_the_French_Academy_of_Sciences Members_of_the_Norwegian_Academy_of_Science_and_Letters Members_of_the_United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences Nicolas_Bourbaki Officiers_of_the_Ordre_national_du_MA(c)rite People_from_Uccle University_of_Bonn_faculty Wolf_Prize_in_Mathematics_laureates