Jean Cerf (born 1928) is a French mathematician, specializing in topology.
He studied at the École Normale Supérieure, graduating in sciences in 1947.
After passing his agrégation in mathematics in 1950, he obtained a doctorate with thesis supervised by Henri Cartan.
[3] In 1970 Cerf proved the pseudo-isotopy theory for simply connected manifolds.
In 1970 he was awarded the prix Servant, together with Bernard Malgrange and André Néron (for independent work).