The Bruce Medalists: Henri Poincare

<body bgcolor="#9CCEFF"> <script language="JavaScript">  </script> <font size="+5"><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main"><font color="#CC6600">The Bruce Medalists</font></a></b></font> <p>   </p> <table width="100%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td width = "33%"> </td><td width = "34%" align="center"><a href="poincare.jpg"><img src="poincareSml.jpg" alt="" height=115 width="91" border="2"></a><td valign="middle"><font size=1>Photo courtesy Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago</font></td><td> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#cc6600">Jules Henri Poincaré</font></b></font></td></tr> <tr><td width = "33%"><b>29 April 1854</b></td> <td align="center" width="34%"><b>1911 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align=right><b>17 July 1912</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Henri Poincaré was educated at <b><a href="http://www.polytechnique.fr/institution/historique.php">l'École Polytechnique</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.ensmp.fr/Eng/ENSMP/history.html">l'École des Mines</a></b>. He was professor of mathematics at the University of Paris from 1881 to 1912. One of the greatest mathematicians of all time, he made significant advances in function theory, algebraic functions, algebraic geometry, algebra, number theory, algebraic topology, and above all, differential equations. He revolutionized celestial mechanics, inaugurating a rigorous treatment and initiating studies of the stability of the solar system. He determined the shape of a rotating fluid subject only to gravity. He wrote extensively on the philosophy of science, worked in mathematical physics, and developed many of the ideas and equations of the <b><a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Special_relativity.html">special theory of relativity</a></b> independently of <b><a href="http://www.westegg.com/einstein/">Albert Einstein</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Lorentz.html">Hendrik A. Lorentz</a></b>. Poincaré is often called the father of <b><a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~srrobin/chaos.html">chaos theory</a></b>. He wrote nearly 500 papers and numerous books, many of them popular and a substantial number <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/002-2813222-5553857?keyword=Henri+Poincare">still in print</a></b>. <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> Morse, Fremont, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1911PASP...23...73M"><i>PASP</i> <b>23</b>, 73-84 (1911)</a>.</p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></FONT></b><br> Royal Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=244&Itemid=104">Gold medal</a>, 1900, presented by G.H. Darwin, <i>MNRAS</i> <b>60</b>, 406-415 (1900).<br> Royal Society of London, <a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Societies/SylvesterMedal.html">Sylvester Medal</a>, 1901. </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Some offices held</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.academie-sciences.fr/actualites/nouvelles_gb.htm">Académie des Sciences</a>, President, 1906.<br> </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=509">lAcadémie française</a> [in French].<br> Appell, P., <i>Henri Poincaré</i> (Paris, 1925) [in French].<br> Dantzig, Tobias, <i>Henri Poincaré</i> (Scribners, NY, 1954).<br> Dauben, Joseph W., <a href="http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/English/mathematics/poincare.html">Central University of Venezuela</a><br> Dieudonné, Jean, <i>Dictionary of Scientific Biography </i><b>11</b>, 51-61.<br> <a href="http://www.exploratorium.edu/complexity/CompLexicon/poincare.html">The Exploratorium</a>.<br> Hoffman, Mike, <a href="http://www.usna.edu/Users/math/meh/poincare.html">Notable Mathematicians</a>.<br> Lamontagne, Yann, <a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Poincare">PlanetMath.org</a><br> Le Laboratoire de Philosophie et dHistoire des Sciences Archives Henri Poincaré, <a href="http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/ACERHP/"> Archives H. Poincaré </a> [in French].<br> Lebon, Ernest, <i>Notice sur Henri Poincaré, </i>in Poincaré, H., <i>Leçons sur les Hypotheses Cosmogoniques</i>, 2nd ed. (Librairie Scientifique A. Hermann & Fils, Paris, 1913)<br> Lebon, Ernest, <i>Henri Poincaré: Biographie, Bibliographie Analytique des Écrit</i> (GauthierVillars, Paris, 1912).<br> Murzi, Mauro, <a href="http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/p/poincare.htm">The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy</a><br> Ormell, Christopher, Henri Poincaré, in Wintle, Justin, ed., <i>Makers of Nineteenth Century Culture, 1800 - 1914,</i> (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1982).<br> <a href="http://planetmath.org/?op=getobj&from=objects&id=3793">PlanetMath.org</a><br> Resonance Publications,<a href="http://www.resonancepub.com/mathematics.htm">The world of Mathematics</a><br>Tenn, Joseph S., Henri Poincaré: The Ninth Bruce Medalist, <a href="PoincareBio.pdf"><cite>Mercury</cite>&nbsp <strong> 20</strong>, 4, 111 (1991)</a>.<br> <a href="http://library.thinkquest.org/22584/temh3052.htm">ThinkQuest: Mathematics History</a><br> Toulouse, E., <i>Henri Poincaré</i> (Paris, 1910) [in French].<br> <a href="http://www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/phisci/Gallery/poincare_note.html">Uchii, Sosichi, Kyoto University</a>.<br> <a href="http://www-chaos.umd.edu/misc/poincare.html">University of Maryland</a><br> University of St. Andrews, <a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Poincare.html">The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive</a>.<br> <a href="http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/English/mathematics/poincare.html">University of Venezuela</a><br> <a href="http://www-chaos.umd.edu/misc/poincare.html">Washington Area Chaos Group</a>.<br> Weisstein, Eric W., <a href="http://www.treasure-troves.com/bios/Poincare.html">Erics Treasure Trove of Scientific Biography</a><br> <b><a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/References/Poincare.html">More biographical materials</a></b> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> <br> Anonymous, <i>Nature</i> <b>90</b>, 353-356 (1912)<br> DeLury, Alfred T., <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1912JRASC...6..309D"><i>JRASC</i> <b>6</b>, 309-21 (1912)</a>.<br> Lebon, Ernest, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1912PASP...24..260L"><i>PASP</i> <b>24</b>, 260-65 (1912)</a>.<br> Archibald, R.C., <i>Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society</i> <b>22</b>, 125-36 (1915). [review of three books and a list of other obituaries]<br> H.F.B., <i>Proceedings of the Royal Society of London</i> <b>A91</b>, vi-xvi (1914)<br> <i>Observatory </i><b> 35</b>, 309.<br> Sarton, George, <i>Bulletin de la Société belge dAstronomie </i><b>XXXIV</b>, 1-11, 37-48 (1913). [p. 46 has portrait at age 34 as given in <i>Isis</i> <b>1</b>, 95-97]<br> <b><a href="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_p.html">More obituaries</a></b> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Photos</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://photos.aip.org/quickSearch.jsp?qsearch=poincare&group=10&Submit=GO">AIP Center for History of Physics</a><br> <a href="http://www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/imageGalaxy_enlarge.cfm?id_image=2678">Dibner Library</a> (<a href="http://www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/imageGalaxy_enlarge.cfm?id_image=2677">another</a>)<br> <a href="http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/poincare/documents/iconowww.html">Le Laboratoire de Philosophie et dHistoire des Sciences Archives Henri Poincaré, Galerie photographique</a> [a large collection]<br> <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ils:2:./temp/~pp_j9Fv::">Library of Congress</a><br> Miller, Jeff, <a href="http://jeff560.tripod.com/poincare.jpg">Images of Mathematicians on Postage Stamps</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/">Lunar crater Poincaré</a><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#P">Minor Planet #2021 Poincaré</a><br> <a href="http://www.uhp-nancy.fr/">Université Henri Poincaré</a> <br> <a href="http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/ACERHP/index.html">Le Laboratoire de Philosophie et dHistoire des Sciences Archives Henri Poincaré</a><br> <a href="http://www.math.unl.edu/~mbritten/ldt/poincare.html">The Poincaré Conjecture</a> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="PoincareRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></font></b></p> <p> <center><b><a href="../index.html" target="_top">The Bruce Medalists</a></b></center> </p> <p> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td valign=TOP><font size=-1>Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to<br> <a href="MAILTO:joe.tenn@sonoma.edu"> joe.tenn@sonoma.edu</a><br></font></td> <td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><font size="-1"><i> <a href="http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/">JST</a></i><br> <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html">2006-02-16</a></font></td> </tr> </table></body>