Charles Pisot (2 March 1910 – 7 March 1984) was a French

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 ...

. He is chiefly recognized as one of the primary investigators of the numerical set associated with his name, the

Pisot–Vijayaraghavan number In mathematics, a Pisot–Vijayaraghavan number, also called simply a Pisot number or a PV number, is a real algebraic integer greater than 1, all of whose Galois conjugates are less than 1 in absolute value. These numbers were discovered by Axel ...

s. He followed the classical path of great French mathematicians by studying 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 ...

on Ulm street, where he was received first at the agrégation in 1932. He then began his academic career at the

Bordeaux University The University of Bordeaux (French: ''Université de Bordeaux'') is a public university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bordeaux, Dax, Gradignan, Périgueux, Pessac, and Ta ...

before being offered a chair at the Science Faculty of Paris and at the

École Polytechnique 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 ...

. He was a member of Bourbaki. Also of interest is the recently solved Pisot conjecture on

rational function In mathematics, a rational function is any function that can be defined by a rational fraction, which is an algebraic fraction such that both the numerator and the denominator are polynomials. The coefficients of the polynomials need not be rat ...

s. (For a technical account and bibliography see

Umberto Zannier Umberto Zannier (born 25 May 1957, in Spilimbergo, Italy) is an Italian mathematician, specializing in number theory and Diophantine geometry. Education Zannier earned a Laurea degree from University of Pisa and studied at the Scuola Normale Sup ...

's paper in the ''

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as the ...

''.) He was also the coauthor (with Marc Zamansky) of a textbook in general mathematics (titled ''Mathématiques générales'') which was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Biography
(in French) * 1910 births 1984 deaths People from Obernai École Polytechnique faculty 20th-century French mathematicians École Normale Supérieure alumni University of Paris faculty Nicolas Bourbaki {{France-mathematician-stub