Jules Joseph Drach (13 March 1871, in
Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines near
Colmar
Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is ...
– 8 March 1949, in
Cavalaire-sur-Mer
Cavalaire-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cavalaire on Sea''; oc, Cavalaira de Mar, label= Provençal or simply ''Cavalaira'') is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, southeastern France.
History
Cavalaire-sur-Mer is ...
,
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) was a French mathematician.
Biography
Drach came from an Alsatian family of peasants. Because of the
Franco-Prussian war the parents fled with their children to
Saint-Dié. He attended school there and in
Nancy before he studied at the
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
(ENS). In 1892 he received his
Agrégation
In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professe ...
and in 1898 he received at ENS his PhD under
Paul Tannery with thesis ''Essai sur la théorie générale de l'intégration et sur la classification des transcendantes''. In his thesis, Drach developed a
Galois theory for differential equations, building upon the work of
Émile Picard
Charles Émile Picard (; 24 July 1856 – 11 December 1941) was a French mathematician. He was elected the fifteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française in 1924.
Life
He was born in Paris on 24 July 1856 and educated there at th ...
,
Sophus Lie
Marius Sophus Lie ( ; ; 17 December 1842 – 18 February 1899) was a Norwegian mathematician. He largely created the theory of continuous symmetry and applied it to the study of geometry and differential equations.
Life and career
Marius Sophu ...
and
Ernest Vessiot
Ernest Vessiot (; 8 March 1865 – 17 October 1952) was a French mathematician. He was born in Marseille, France, and died in La Bauche, Savoie, France. He entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1884.
He was Maître de Conférences at Lille ...
. After that he was ''Maître de Conférences'' at the University (Faculté des Sciences) in
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...
. Drach was successively a professor at
Lille
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...
,
Poitiers
Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetà e'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...
, and
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
, before he became in 1913 Professor for Anaytic Mechanics and Higher Analysis at the
Sorbonne. During World War I he studied the mathematical theory of ballistics and published the results of his research around 1920.
In retirement he moved to Cavalaire in southern France, where he had a country estate to which he frequently withdrew because of his health. He remained mathematically active in retirement.
In addition to mathematical analysis and its applications to mechanics, Drach worked on number theory, partial differential equations, and differential geometry. In 1929 he was elected a member of the
Académie des Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...
.
Drach and his friend
Émile Borel
Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel (; 7 January 1871 – 3 February 1956) was a French mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Math ...
published, in 1892, their notes on lectures given by
Henri Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...
and, in 1895, their notes on lectures given by
Paul Tannery. Drach was also a co-editor of the collected works of Poincaré.
Drach was married to Mathilde Guitton. His son Pierre Drach was a noted biologist.
Works
* with Émile Borel as co-editor:
* with Émile Borel:
*
*
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drach, Jules
19th-century French mathematicians
20th-century French mathematicians
Ballistics experts
École Normale Supérieure alumni
Academic staff of the Lille University of Science and Technology
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Academic staff of the University of Paris
1871 births
1949 deaths