4-26. Eugène Fabry

Eugène Fabry (1856–1944) was born in Marseille, trained at the École polytechnique (X 1874), where he was followed by two brothers, who became scientists: the astronomer Louis Fabry (X 1880), and the spectroscopist Charles Fabry (X 1885). Eugène defended his Ph.D. thesis on 28 July, 1885 at the Paris Faculty of Science before a jury composed of Charles Hermite (president), Poincaré and Gaston Darboux. The authorization to defend the thesis was delivered in light of Poincaré’s favorable report (§ 7-3-1) by the dean of the science faculty, E. Hébert, on 5 June, 1885 (Fabry, 1885, 102). Shortly afterwards, on 10 June, Fabry wrote Poincaré to ask him about a result in the latter’s recent paper in the American Journal of Mathematics (Poincaré, 1885), which was the topic of Fabry’s “second thesis”, and on which he was to be examined during the defense (§ 4-26-1).

Following his successful thesis defense, Fabry joined the science faculty in Rennes for a year, moving to Nancy to teach astronomy for a semester in 1886. In the fall of 1886, he took up a position as chargé de cours in rational mechanics at the science faculty in Marseille, where he would remain for the rest of his career. He was joined there by Charles Fabry from 1894 to 1920, while Louis Fabry was attached to the Marseille Observatory from 1890 to 1924 (Véron, 2006).

In 1888, Eugène Fabry was named to the chair in rational mechanics. Two years later, Fabry exchanged this chair for one in pure mathematics. When Louis Charles Sauvage, the titular professor of analysis died in 1920, Fabry took up his chair, which he held until his retirement in 1926. In 1931, Fabry became a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and in 1935, he was named to the Bureau of Longitudes.

Time-stamp: "16.09.2025 13:44"

Notes

• 1 See the entry by Philippe Nabonnand on the website “Facultés et Université de Nancy aux 19^e–20^e siècles”.