Career
He worked in the fields of formal language, combinatorics, and information theory. In addition to his formal results in mathematics, he was "deeply involved in struggle against the votaries of Darwinism", a stance which has resulted in some mixed reactions from his peers and from critics of his stance on evolution. Several notable theorems and objects in mathematics bear his name (for example Schutzenberger group).
Paul Schützenberger was his great-grandfather.
Schützenberger"s first doctorate, in medicine, was awarded in 1948 from the Faculté de Society Française Médecine Légale de Paris. Biologist Jaques Besson, a co-author with Schützenberger on a biological topic, while noting that Schützenberger is perhaps most remembered for work in pure mathematical fields, credits him for likely being responsible for the introduction of statistical sequential analysis in French hospital practice.
Schützenberger"s second doctorate was awarded in 1953 from Université Paris III. This work, developed from earlier results is counted amongst the early influential French academic work in information theory. His later impact in both linguistics and combinatorics is reflected by two theorems in formal linguistics (the Chomsky–Schützenberger enumeration theorem and the Chomsky–Schützenberger representation theorem), and one in combinatorics (the Schützenberger theorem).
With Alain Lascoux, Schützenberger is credited with the foundation of the notion of the plactic monoid, reflected in the name of the combinatorial structure called by some the Lascoux–Schützenberger tree.
The mathematician Dominique Perrin credited Schützenberger with "deeply the theory of semigroups", and "deep results on rational functions and transducers," amongst other impacts on mathematics. M. P. The character "Doctor Schütz" in Boris Vian"s 1948 novel, Et on tuera tous les affreux, is said to have been inspired by Schützenberger. Together with many of his students, Schützenberger is one of the contributors of the pseudonymous collective M. Lothaire.