author
Emile Picard
1856–1941
A leading French mathematician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he helped shape modern analysis, algebraic geometry, and differential equations. His name lives on in Picard's theorems, still central to complex analysis today.
1 Audiobook
L'œuvre de Henri Poincaré
by Emile Picard
About the author
Born in Paris on July 24, 1856, Charles Émile Picard became one of France's most influential mathematicians. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure, taught at Toulouse and then at the University of Paris, and built a reputation for work that ranged widely across pure and applied mathematics.
Picard is especially remembered for major contributions to complex analysis, including the results now known as Picard's little and great theorems. He also worked in algebraic geometry, differential equations, mechanics, and mathematical physics, and wrote textbooks and broader essays that helped bring advanced mathematics to wider audiences.
His standing in French intellectual life reached beyond mathematics alone. In 1924 he was elected to the Académie française, a rare honor for a mathematician, and he remained an important public figure in science until his death in Paris on December 11, 1941.