James P. Pierpont (June 16, 1866 – December 9, 1938) was a

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. His father Cornelius Pierpont was a wealthy

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

businessman. He did undergraduate studies at

Worcester Polytechnic Institute '' , mottoeng = "Theory and Practice" , established = , former_name = Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science (1865-1886) , type = Private research university , endowme ...

, initially in mechanical engineering, but turned to mathematics. He went to Europe after graduating in 1886. He studied in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and later in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He prepared his PhD at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

under

Leopold Gegenbauer Leopold Bernhard Gegenbauer (2 February 1849, Asperhofen – 3 June 1903, Gießhübl) was an Austrian mathematician remembered best as an algebraist. Gegenbauer polynomials are named after him. Leopold Gegenbauer was the son of a doctor. He ...

and

Gustav Ritter von Escherich Gustav Ritter von Escherich (1 June 1849 – 28 January 1935) was an Austrian mathematician. Biography Born in Mantua, he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna. From 1876 to 1879 he was professor at the University of Graz. ...

. His thesis, defended in 1894, is entitled ''Zur Geschichte der Gleichung fünften Grades bis zum Jahre 1858''. After his defense, he returned to New Haven and was appointed as a lecturer at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he spent most of his career. In 1898, he became professor. Initially, his research dealt with

Galois theory In mathematics, Galois theory, originally introduced by Évariste Galois, provides a connection between field theory and group theory. This connection, the fundamental theorem of Galois theory, allows reducing certain problems in field theory to ...

of equations. The

Pierpont prime In number theory, a Pierpont prime is a prime number of the form 2^u\cdot 3^v + 1\, for some nonnegative integers and . That is, they are the prime numbers for which is 3-smooth. They are named after the mathematician James Pierpont, who use ...

s are named after Pierpont, who introduced them in 1895 in connection with a problem of constructing

regular polygon In Euclidean geometry, a regular polygon is a polygon that is Equiangular polygon, direct equiangular (all angles are equal in measure) and Equilateral polygon, equilateral (all sides have the same length). Regular polygons may be either convex p ...

s with the use of

conic section In mathematics, a conic section, quadratic curve or conic is a curve obtained as the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a specia ...

s. After 1900, he worked in real and complex analysis. In his textbooks of

real analysis In mathematics, the branch of real analysis studies the behavior of real numbers, sequences and series of real numbers, and real functions. Some particular properties of real-valued sequences and functions that real analysis studies include converg ...

, he introduced a definition of the integral analogous to

Lebesgue integration In mathematics, the integral of a non-negative function of a single variable can be regarded, in the simplest case, as the area between the graph of that function and the -axis. The Lebesgue integral, named after French mathematician Henri Leb ...

. His definition was later criticized by

Maurice Fréchet Maurice may refer to: People *Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr *Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...

. Finally, in the 1920s, his interest turned to

non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean geo ...

Papers by J. P. Pierpont

* * * * * * *

Books by J. P. Pierpont

Lectures On The Theory Of Functions Of Real Variables Vol. I
(Ginn and co., 1905)
Lectures On The Theory Of Functions Of Real Variables Vol. II
(Ginn and co., 1912)
Functions of a complex variable
(Ginn and co., 1914)

External links

* Oystein Ore, ''James Pierpont—In memoriam'
Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 45, (1939), pp. 481-486
* * http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Pierpont.html 1866 births 1938 deaths 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians Yale University faculty Worcester Polytechnic Institute alumni {{US-mathematician-stub