Henri Poincare
From: http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/English/mathematics/
Jules Henri Poincare, b.
Apr. 29, 1854, d. July 17, 1912, was one of France's greatest theoretical
scientists. His contributions to mathematics, mathematical physics,
and celestial mechanics were often basic, profound, and highly original.
His interest in the foundations and philosophical issues of the fields
in which he worked were also influential and of considerable importance,
particularly in France.
Poincare entered the Ecole Polytechnique in 1873 and later studied
at the Ecole des Mines, from which he received his doctorate in mathematics
in 1879. He accepted a professorship of mathematical physics at the
Sorbonne (University of Paris) in 1881, remaining there for the rest
of his life.
In mathematics, Poincare can be said to have been the originator
of algebraic topology and of the theory of analytic functions of
several complex variables. He also made fundamental advances in the
theory of Abelian functions and in algebraic geometry. Moreover,
as a student of Charles HERMITE, Poincare was interested in number
theory; his major contribution was related to a problem in the theory
of DIOPHANTINE EQUATIONS.
Poincare was deeply involved in the mathematics relevant to problems
of celestial mechanics, the THREE-BODY PROBLEM, and theories of light
and electromagnetic waves. He is credited by many as a codiscoverer
(with Albert Einstein and Hendrik Lorentz) of the special theory
of relativity. He helped place celestial mechanics on a rigorous
basis in two major works: New Methods of Celestial Mechanics (3 vols.,
1892-99; Eng. trans., 1967) and Lecons de mecanique celeste (Lessons
of Celestial Mechanics, 1905-10).
Of his most popular and philosophical writings, notice must be made
of Science and Hypothesis (1901; Eng. trans., 1905), Science and
Method (1908; Eng. trans., 1914), and The Value of Science (1904;
Eng. trans., 1907).
Author: Joseph W. Dauben
Bibliography: Bell, Eric T., Men of Mathematics (1937; repr. 1986);
Dantzig, Tobias, Henri Poincare, Critic of Crisis (1954; repr. 1968);
Hadamard, Jacques S., The Early Scientific Work of Henri Poincare
(1922) and The Later Scientific Work of Henri Poincare (1933); Morgan,
Bryan, Men and Discoveries in Mathematics (1972); Slosson, Edwin
E., Major Prophets of Today (1914; repr. 1968). |
