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Birth
Poincaré was born on 29 April 1854 in Cité Ducale neighborhood, Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, into an influential French family. His father Léon Poincaré (1828–1892) was a professor of medicine at the University of Nancy. His younger sister Aline married the spiritual philosopher Emile Boutroux. Another notable member of Henri's family was his cousin, Raymond Poincaré, a fellow member of the Académie française, who would serve as President of France from 1913 to 1920. -
Education
In 1862, Henri entered the Lycée in Nancy, along with Henri Poincaré University, also in Nancy. He spent eleven years at the Lycée and during this time he proved to be one of the top students in every topic he studied. He graduated from the Lycée in 1871 with a bachelor's degree in letters and sciences. -
First scientific achievements
After receiving his degree, Poincaré began teaching as junior lecturer in mathematics at the University of Caen in Normandy (in December 1879). At the same time he published his first major article concerning the treatment of a class of automorphic functions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nCBQTKD7S8 -
First Teaching Expirience
In 1881 Poincaré was invited to take a teaching position at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Paris; he accepted the invitation. During the years of 1883 to 1897, he taught mathematical analysis in École Polytechnique. -
Invention In Mathematics
Poincare invents a form of mathematics known as qualitative theory of differential equations. This form of mathematics allowed for teh extrapolation of important information of a given solution without having to solve the equation. This lead to significant discoveries in celestial mechanics as well as mathematical physics. -
Achievments
Poincaré made many contributions to different fields of pure and applied mathematics such as: celestial mechanics, fluid mechanics, optics, electricity, telegraphy, capillarity, elasticity, thermodynamics, potential theory, quantum theory, theory of relativity and physical cosmology. He was also a populariser of mathematics and physics and wrote several books for the lay public. -
The Dynamics of the Electron
In 1905 Poincaré elaborated Lorentz's electron theory from 1904 in two papers entitled 1:"Sur la dynamique de l'electron",
the first of which was a report and an outline of the
latter. The report was presented on June 5, 1905 to the French Academy of Sciences and published in the Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Academie des sciences. Paris, 4 pages long, the usual length of reports published in the Comptes rendus.https://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.6576.pdf -
Philosophy
Poincaré had philosophical views opposite to those of Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege, who believed that mathematics was a branch of logic. Poincaré strongly disagreed, claiming that intuition was the life of mathematics.
''For a superficial observer, scientific truth is beyond the possibility of doubt; the logic of science is infallible, and if the scientists are sometimes mistaken, this is only from their mistaking its rule.'' -
Death
In 1912, Poincaré underwent surgery for a prostate problem and subsequently died from an embolism on 17 July 1912, in Paris. He was 58 years of age. He is buried in the Poincaré family vault in the Cemetery of Montparnasse, Paris.
