POINCARÉ H

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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29.4.1854 Nancy/F - 17.7.1912 Paris/F

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Henri Poincaré graduated from Ecole Polytechnique first and then from Ecole Normale Supérieure to submit a PhD thesis in 1879. He then started lecturing at Faculté des Sciences of Caen and continued as a Lecturer at the same Paris institution. From 1883 to 1897 he lectured mathematics at Ecole Polytechnique and in parallel was involved in physical and experimental mechanics at Faculté des Sciences. From 1896, Poincaré was a professor of mathematical astronomy at this institution, and from 1904 to 1908 a professor of general astronomy at Ecole Polytechnique. During his entire academic career, he was in parallel a mining engineer where he advanced up to the degree of Inspecteur Général in 1910. Poincaré presided twice over Société Mathématique de France, Société Astronomique de France, Bureau des Longitudes, among many other appointments. He was awarded various degrees from Légion d'Honneur; he was a Member of Académie des Sciences from 1887 and its president in the year 1906. He also received a large number of distinctions including honorary doctorates of eight foreign universities.

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Poincaré's scientific works are published in eleven volumes of the Académie des Sciences. In total he published some 500 papers. He is sometimes considered the last universalist in mathematics. He made notable contributions also to celestial mechanics, fluid mechanics, relativity and the philosophy of science. In the present context, his works in capillarity and wave mechanics are of note. Poincaré also contributed significantly to the history of sciences.

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_{Anonymous (1912). Henri Poincaré. Cosmos 67(1435): 89-90. P}

_{Charle, C., Telkes, E. (1989). Jules Henri Poincaré. Les professeurs de la Faculté des Sciences de Paris: 230-232. CNRS: Paris.}

_{Hadamard, J. (1921). Henri Poincaré. Acta Mathematica 38: 203-287, with bibliography. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1898). Poincaré, Jules-Henri. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch}

_{3: 1053-1054; 4: 1178-1180; 5: 990; 6: 2038. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}

_{Poincaré, H. (1886). Sur l'équilibre d'une masse fluide animée d'un mouvement de rotation. Acta Mathematica 7: 259-380.}

_{Poincaré, H. (1916). Œuvres. Académie des Sciences: Paris.}

_{Rive, L. de la (1914). Henri Poincaré - La carrière scientifique. Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles Série 4 38: 159-201.}

_{Sanzo, U. (1993). Scritti di fisica-matematica di Jules-Henri Poincaré. UTET: Torino. P}