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Joseph liouville mathematician biography

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Joseph Liouville

French mathematician and engineer (1809–1882)

"Liouville" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see Liouville (crater).

Joseph LiouvilleFRS FRSEFAS (LEE-oo-VIL, French:[ʒozɛfljuvil]; 24 March 1809 – 8 September 1882)[1][2] was a French mathematician and engineer.

Life and work

He was born in Saint-Omer in France on 24 March 1809.[3][4] His parents were Claude-Joseph Liouville (an army officer) and Thérèse Liouville (née Balland).

Liouville gained admission to the École Polytechnique in 1825 and graduated in 1827. Just like Augustin-Louis Cauchy before him, Liouville studied engineering at École des Ponts et Chaussées after graduating from the Polytechnique, but opted instead for a career in mathematics. After some years as an assistant at various institutions including the École Centrale Paris, he was appointed as professor at the École Polytechnique in 1838. He obtained a chair in mathematics at the Collège de France in 1850 and a chair in mechanics at the Faculté des Sciences in 1857.

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Joseph Liouville

1809-1882

French Mathematician

French mathematician Joseph Liouville was an accomplished teacher and a gifted researcher. His work in mathematical physics influenced the study of electrodynamics, heat flow, and addressed problems in astronomy. In addition, his purely mathematical contributions included the integration of certain algebraic functions, transcendental numbers, and examination of boundary values in differential equations. During his incredibly productive career, he taught almost continuously and published over 400 scientific papers.

Liouville was the son of a captain in Napoleon's army, causing him to live with his uncle until his father's return from the Napoleonic wars. After the wars, Liouville attended school, eventually attending the Collège St. Louis in Paris. It was there that he first studied high-level mathematics and began writing papers (though none were published). In 1825 Liouville entered the Ecole Polytechnique, taking classes from André Ampère (1775-1836), Dominique Arago (1786-1853), and Simeon Poisson (1781-1840).

In 1831

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Quick Info

Born
24 March 1809
Saint-Omer, France
Died
8 September 1882
Paris, France
Summary
Joseph Liouville is best known for his work on transcendental numbers. He constructed an infinite class of such numbers.

Biography

Joseph Liouville's father was an army captain in Napoleon's army so Joseph had to spend the first few years of his life with his uncle. His father was certainly fortunate to survive the wars and after Napoleon was defeated he retired to live with his family. The family then settled in Toul where Joseph attended school. From Toul he went to the Collège St Louis in Paris where he studied mathematics at the highest levels. After reading articles in Gergonne's Journal he proved some geometrical results which he wrote up as papers although they were never published.

Liouville entered the École Polytechnique in 1825 and attended Ampère's Cours d'analyse et de mécaniqueⓉ in session 1825-26. He also attended courses by Arago at the École Polytechnique as well as a second course by Ampère at the Collège de France. Although Liouville does

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