Emile Picard

Charles Émile Picard

Born: 24 July 1856 in Paris, France
Died: 11 Dec 1941 in Paris, France

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Émile Picard was appointed lecturer at the University of Paris in 1878 and professor at Toulouse in 1879. In 1898 he was appointed professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. He made his most important contributions in the field of analysis and analytic geometry. He used methods of successive approximation to show the existence of solutions of ordinary differential equations.

Building on work by Abel and Riemann, Picard's study of the integrals attached to algebraic surfaces and related topological questions developed into an important part of algebraic geometry. On this topic he published, with Georges Simart, Théorie des fonctions algébriques de deux variables indépendantes 2 vol. (1897, 1906). Picard also applied analysis to the study of elasticity, heat and electricity.

He married Hermite's daughter. Picard's daughter and two sons were all killed in World War I. His grandsons were wounded and captured in World War II.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. E Lebon, Émile Picard, biographie, bibliographie (Paris, 1910).
  4. G Picolet (ed.), Jean Picard et les debuts de l'astronomie de precision au XVIIe siecle : actes du colloque du tricentenaire (Paris, 1987). 
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