Serve-Dieu Abailard "Armand" Lévy (14 November 1795 – 29 July 1841) 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

. He is remembered in the Haüy-Lévy notation for describing mineral crystal structures.

Life

Lévy was born in Paris where his Jewish businessman father had married Céline Mailfert, a Catholic. Although his birth and death records list his names as Serve-Dieu Abailard, he registered with the Geological Society of London under the name Armand. Armand Lévy studied mathematics and passed his

agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

in 1816 from the École Normale Supérieure. Due to his Jewish origin, he faced difficulties obtaining jobs in France and accepted a position at the Collège Royal on

Reunion Island Reunion may refer to: * Class reunion * Family reunion Reunion, Réunion, Re-union, Reunions or The Reunion may also refer to: Places * Réunion, a French overseas department and island in the Indian Ocean * Reunion, Commerce City, Colorado, U ...

. However, while sailing to the Indian Ocean, his ship was wrecked off

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

. Subsequently, he settled in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where he made a living by giving mathematics lessons. In 1820, he met mineral dealer Henry Heuland, who asked him to categorise his collection for sale to Charles Hampden Turner. During his time in London, Lévy interacted with Wollaston and became a member of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe, with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

in 1826. In 1827, He went to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

to supervise the printing of the Heuland mineral catalogue. He would later settle and become a professor at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...

. After the 1830 revolution, he returned to France and taught mathematics at the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

in Paris. Lévy worked on defining crystal structures based on parallelepipeds with truncations of the edges and vertices, using vowels for vertices and consonants for edges, with the bounded planes characterized by their slope. However, this system was later superseded by the Miller system. Lévy married Harriet Drewet in 1822 in London. Following her death and move to Paris, he married Amélie, daughter of mathematician Olinde Rodriquez, in 1838. He died of an

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward :wikt:bulge, bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also b ...

in 1841.

Legacy

Armand Lévy described many mineral species, such as babingtonite, beudantite,

brochantite Brochantite is a sulfate mineral, one of a number of cupric sulfates. Its chemical formula is Cu4SO4(OH)6. Formed in arid climates or in rapidly oxidizing copper sulfide deposits, it was named by Armand Lévy (mineralogist), Armand Lévy for his ...

brookite Brookite is the Orthorhombic crystal system, orthorhombic variant of titanium dioxide (TiO2), which occurs in four known natural Polymorphism (materials science), polymorphic forms (minerals with the same composition but different structure). The ...

forsterite Forsterite (Mg2SiO4; commonly abbreviated as Fo; also known as white olivine) is the magnesium-rich Endmember, end-member of the olivine solid solution series. It is Isomorphism (crystallography), isomorphous with the iron-rich end-member, fayalit ...

, phillipsite, roselite and willemite. Lévyne was named after him..

References

French mineralogists 1795 births 1841 deaths 19th-century French mathematicians Academic staff of the University of Liège Deaths from aneurysm {{France-scientist-stub