4-38. Charles Hermite

Charles Hermite (1822–1901) was born in Dieuze (Moselle), the sixth child of Ferdinand Hermite and Madeleine Lallemand. He was admitted to the École polytechnique in 1842, but stayed only for a year. Nonetheless, he was named an admissions examiner and répétiteur there in 1848, and professor of analysis in 1867. In 1869 he was named professor of higher algebra at the Paris Faculty of Sciences, where he lectured until he retired in 1897.

Hermite married a sister of Joseph Bertrand; one of his daughters married Émile Picard. From 1856, he was a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in the geometry section. His works were edited in four volumes by Picard (1905; 1908; 1912; 1917). Appreciations of Hermite’s contributions to mathematics include Poincaré (1892); Picard (1901); Darboux (1912); Freudenthal (1972); Goldstein et al. (2007).

While Poincaré did not marry into Hermite’s family, his career benefited greatly from Hermite’s patronage, and on the occasion of the jubilee celebration of Hermite’s teaching career, at the behest of the Société mathématique de France, he delivered a warm address in his honor.

Time-stamp: "29.10.2023 20:51"

Notes

• 1 On the family ties of Hermite and Bertrand, see Zerner (1991).
• 2 See the annotated autograph of Poincaré’s speech (§ 7-1-4), and the several editions: Poincaré (1892, 1893b, 1893a) and Poincaré (1910, 97–101).