Poincaré devised a new way of studying the properties of these equations. It was named Sur les propriétés des fonctions définies par les équations aux différences partielles. His doctoral thesis was in the field of differential equations. He carried out the official investigation into the accident in a characteristically thorough and humane way.Īt the same time, Poincaré was preparing for his Doctorate in Science in mathematics under the supervision of Charles Hermite. He was on the scene of a mining disaster at Magny in August 1879 in which 18 miners died. Īs a graduate of the École des Mines, he joined the Corps des Mines as an inspector for the Vesoul region in northeast France. From November 1875 to June 1878 he studied at the École des Mines, while continuing the study of mathematics in addition to the mining engineering syllabus, and received the degree of ordinary mining engineer in March 1879. There he studied mathematics as a student of Charles Hermite, continuing to excel and publishing his first paper ( Démonstration nouvelle des propriétés de l'indicatrice d'une surface) in 1874. Poincaré entered the École Polytechnique as the top qualifier in 1873 and graduated in 1875. He graduated from the Lycée in 1871 with a baccalauréat in both letters and sciences.ĭuring the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he served alongside his father in the Ambulance Corps. However, poor eyesight and a tendency towards absentmindedness may explain these difficulties. His poorest subjects were music and physical education, where he was described as "average at best". His mathematics teacher described him as a "monster of mathematics" and he won first prizes in the concours général, a competition between the top pupils from all the Lycées across France. 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. In 1862, Henri entered the Lycée in Nancy (now renamed the Lycée Henri-Poincaré in his honour, along with Henri Poincaré University, also in Nancy). Plaque on the birthplace of Henri Poincaré at house number 117 on the Grande Rue in the city of Nancyĭuring his childhood he was seriously ill for a time with diphtheria and received special instruction from his mother, Eugénie Launois (1830–1897). 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. His younger sister Aline married the spiritual philosopher Émile Boutroux. His father Léon Poincaré (1828–1892) was a professor of medicine at the University of Nancy. Poincaré was born on 29 April 1854 in Cité Ducale neighborhood, Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, into an influential French family.