APPELL

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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27.9.1855 Strasbourg/F - 24.10.1930 Paris/F

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Paul-Emile Appell graduated from the University of Nancy where he got acquainted with Henri Poincaré (1854-1912). He then continued studies at Ecole Nationale Supérieure ENS in Paris and submitted a PhD thesis in 1877. He was appointed Lecturer in rational mechanics at Dijon University in 1879 but returned three years later to the Académie des Sciences in Paris. In 1885 he submitted a paper on Abelian functions to King Oscar of Sweden, who called up mathematicians of all over the world for a scientific concourse, then won by Appell and Poincaré. Appell was appointed dean of the Faculté des Sciences in 1903, and became the rector of Paris University from 1920 to 1925.

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Appell is mainly known for his works in algebra, infinitesimal and analytic geometry and less for his contributions to rational mechanics. He mastered both topics and investigated especially equilibrium shapes of a liquid mass upon revolution. He also investigated ideal fluid flows from a mathematical point of view, presented the governing equations of the movement of a spherical projectile in the air, introduced vortices of various orders and analyzed flows of continuous media. Appell in addition worked, as many of his colleagues, on the history of sciences mainly in the mid 1920s. He was awarded the Grand Croix of Légion d'Honneur in 1925, was a Member of Académie des Sciences from 1892, and its president in 1914, and a Foreign Member of Accademia dei Lincei from 1904, among many other distinctions.

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_{Anonymous (1900). Appell, Paul-Emile. Revue Universelle 10: 896. P}

_{Anonymous (1930). M. Paul Appell. Chaleur et Industrie 11(10): 486.}

_{Appell, P.E. (1918). Précis de mécanique rationnelle: Introduction à l'étude de la physique et de la mécanique appliquée. Gauthier-Villars: Paris.}

_{Appell, P. (1921). Figures d'équilibre d'une masse liquide homogène en rotation sous l'action de ses particules. Gauthier-Villars: Paris.}

_{Appell, P.E. (1928). Equilibre et mouvement des milieux continues. Gauthier-Villars: Paris. Charle, C., Telkes, E. (1989). Paul Emile Appell. Les professeurs de la Faculté des Sciences de Paris: 24-28. CNRS: Paris.}

_{Lecornu, M. (1931). Paul Appell. Bulletin de la Société Astronomique de France 45: 42-43. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1898). Appell, Paul. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 3: 37;}

_{4: 33-34; 5: 29-30; 6: 65-67. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}