Eugène Charles Catalan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1814-05-30)30 May 1814 |
| Died | 14 February 1894(1894-02-14) (aged 79) |
| Alma mater | École Polytechnique |
| Known for | Catalan numbers Catalan solid Catalan surface Catalan's conjecture Catalan's constant Catalan's identity Catalan's minimal surface |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Doctoral advisor | Joseph Liouville |
| Doctoral students | François Deruyts Charles Hermite Constantin Le Paige |
| Other notable students | Ernesto Cesàro[1] |
Eugène Charles Catalan (French pronunciation:[øʒɛnʃaʁlkatalɑ̃]; 30 May 1814 – 14 February 1894)[2] was a French andBelgian mathematician who worked oncontinued fractions,descriptive geometry,number theory andcombinatorics. His notable contributions included discovering a periodic minimal surface in the space; stating the famousCatalan's conjecture, which was eventually proved in 2002; and introducing theCatalan numbers to solve a combinatorial problem.
Catalan was born inBrugge (now inBelgium, then underDutch rule even though theKingdom of the Netherlands had not yet been formally instituted), the only child of a French jeweller by the name of Joseph Catalan, in 1814. In 1825, he traveled to Paris and learned mathematics atÉcole Polytechnique, where he metJoseph Liouville (1833). In December 1834 he was expelled along with most of the students in his year as part of a crackdown by theJuly Monarchy against republican tendencies among the students.[3] He resumed his studies in January 1835, graduated that summer, and went on to teach atChâlons-sur-Marne. Catalan came back to the École Polytechnique, and, with the help of Liouville, obtained his degree in mathematics in 1841. He went on to Charlemagne College to teach descriptive geometry. Though he was politically active and strongly left-wing, leading him to participate in the1848 Revolution, he had an animated career and also sat in the France's Chamber of Deputies. Later, in 1849, Catalan was visited at his home by the French Police, searching for illicit teaching material; however, none was found.
TheUniversity of Liège appointed him chair of analysis in 1865. In 1879, still in Belgium, he became journal editor where he published as a foot notePaul-Jean Busschop's theory after refusing it in 1873, letting Busschop know that it was too empirical. In 1883, he worked for theBelgian Academy of Science in the field of number theory. He died inLiège, Belgium, where he had received a chair.
He worked oncontinued fractions,descriptive geometry,number theory andcombinatorics. He gave his name to a unique surface (periodic minimal surface in the space) that he discovered in 1855. Before that, he had stated the famousCatalan's conjecture, which was published in 1844 and was eventually proved in 2002 byPreda Mihăilescu. He introduced theCatalan numbers to solve acombinatorialproblem (although these were actually discovered a century earlier by theastronomerMinggatu).
