DARBOUX

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

\

14.8.1842 Nîmes/F - 23.2.1917 Paris/F

\

Jean-Gaston Darboux entered Ecole Polytechnique in 1862 and then Ecole Normale Supérieure, where his talents in mathematics were discovered. He was appointed Lecturer at Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1872 and collaborated with the famous French mathematicians Liouville and Chasles in the chair of higher geometry. In 1880, Darboux succeeded the latter in the chair of rational mechanics at Sorbonne, Paris, holding this chair until his death. Darboux was the dean of the Faculty of Sciences from 1889 to 1903.

\

Darboux's work is mainly in differential geometry. The Darboux integrals were introduced in the 1870 paper on differential equations of the second order. Between 1887 and 1896 he produced four volumes on infinitesimal geometry including a discussion of one surface rolling on another surface. He studied also the geometrical configuration generated by points and lines which are fixed on the rolling surface. Darboux's contributions to fluid mechanics are in the fundamental descriptions of three-dimensional fluid flows involving complicated geometries. He also significantly added to the history of hydraulics with a large commemorative work on Joseph Fourier (1768-1830). In 1912 he presented an historical outline on famous colleagues at Institut de France. He is still considered an outstanding scientist in analytical geometry. He received more than 100 elections to academic societies, among which the most prestigious are Académie des Sciences, Paris, in 1884 where he acted also as the Secretary from 1900, and the Royal Society in 1902. He was also awarded the Sylvester Medal from the Royal Society in 1916.

\

_{Anonymous (1900). Jean-Gaston Darboux, Revue Universelle: 896. P Darboux, G. (1888). Œuvres de Fourier. Gauthier-Villars: Paris. Darboux, G. (1912). Eloges académiques et discours. Hermann: Paris.}

_{Darboux, G. (1914). Leçons sur la théorie générale des surface et les applications géométriques du calcul infinitésimal. Gauthier-Villars: Paris.}

_{Lebon, E. (1917). Gaston Darboux. Bulletin Société Philomatique Série 10 9: 1-20.}

_{Nordmann, C. (1913). M. Darboux, secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des Sciences, président de la conférence internationale de l'Heure. L'Illustration 142(3685): 328-329. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1898). Darboux, Jean Gaston. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch}

_{3: 326-327; 4: 296; 5: 261; 6: 518. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}

_{Struick, D.J. (1981). Darboux, Jean-Gaston. Dictionary of scientific biography 3: 559-560, C.C. Gillispie, ed. Scribner's Sons: New York.}