Charles Hermite

Charles Hermite
Charles Hermite
Born(1822-12-24)24 December 1822
Died14 January 1901(1901-01-14) (aged 78)
Alma mater
Collège Henri IV, Sorbonne
Collège Louis-le-Grand, Sorbonne
Known forProof that e is transcendental
Hermitian adjoint
Hermitian form
Hermitian function
Hermitian matrix
Hermitian metric
Hermitian operator
Hermite polynomials
Hermitian transpose
Hermitian wavelet
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Institutions
Doctoral advisorEugène Charles Catalan
Doctoral studentsLéon Charve
Henri Padé
Mihailo Petrović
Henri Poincaré
Thomas Stieltjes
Jules Tannery

Charles Hermite (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl ɛʁˈmit]) FRS FRSE MIAS (24 December 1822 – 14 January 1901) was a French mathematician who did research concerning number theory, quadratic forms, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, elliptic functions, and algebra.

Hermite polynomials, Hermite interpolation, Hermite normal form, Hermitian operators, and cubic Hermite splines are named in his honor. One of his students was Henri Poincaré.

He was the first to prove that e, the base of natural logarithms, is a transcendental number. His methods were used later by Ferdinand von Lindemann to prove that π is transcendental.