Henri Poincar: A Scientific Biography

(Paperback)

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Henri Poincar (1854-1912) was not just one of the most inventive, versatile, and productive mathematicians of all time - he was also a leading physicist who almost won a Nobel Prize for physics. This book explores all the fields that Poincar touched, the debates sparked by his investigations, and how his discoveries still contribute to society.

Reviews

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013"
"Masterly. . . . Gray encapsulates Poincar's multiple dimensions; his intellectual biography is both a tour de force and a triumph of readability."---George Szpiro, Nature
"Gray shows us the full dazzling sweep of what Poincar accomplished, including the work on dynamical systems and chaos that only came into its own in recent years. A tour de force, Gray's masterful treatment will long remain an invaluable resource for all who want to understand Poincar, so embedded within his times and yet so far ahead of them."---Peter Pesic, Science
"[A] comprehensive but uncluttered guide to Poincar's extensive oeuvres."---Madeline Muntersbjorn, Times Higher Education
"Full of the mathematical, physical and metaphysical ideas of a man who was not only a dispassionate observer of the world around us, but of our way of understanding it."---Mark Ronan, Standpoint Magazine
"[A] comprehensive assessment of Poincare's work and its importance, essential for anyone interested in Poincare's scholarship or the history of mathematics."---Laura Tarwater Scharp, Sacramento Book Review
"Comprehensive." * Science News *
"A fundamental study of the scientific work of one of the greatest mathematicians and mathematical physicists of the three decades straddling the 19th and 20th centuries. . . . Chapters are organized topically, not chronologically. Each illuminates in depth one or other of Poincar's works but all are set in context both historical and temathic such that each can serve as an introduction into the many subjects to which Poincar made a contribution."---Alexander Bogomolny, CTK Insights
"Poincare's work is fully alive in science today. This biography is one of the first thorough introductions to his work, it should get the attention of mathematicians, natural scientists and philosophers."---Ferdinand Verhulst, European Legacy
"Gray, a mathematics historian and scholar on the life and work of Henry Poincar, has, with the support of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, produced this comprehensive and definitive 'scientific biography.' Gray offers abundant rich information on Poincar's ideas and scientific process, the evolution and maturity of his mathematics including missteps, the dexterity of his reasoning, and the influences that shaped his thought." * Choice *
"I recommend [this] book highly."---Robert E. O'Malley, Jr., SIAM Review
"

Jeremy Gray's book on Poincar's mathematics, physics, and philosophy is an important contribution to the literature and a huge step towards a full biography of this pioneer of
modern science.

"---Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze, Zentralblatt MATH
"Gray's book is a comprehensive scientific biography of Poincare. It embraces the broad scope of Poincare's work, from his philosophical speculations to his popular writing, and gives a thorough overview of his extensive mathematical researches."---Peter Lynch, Irish Mathematical Society Bulletin
"[T]he author does not simply give platitudes when writing about Poincare's ideas: mathematicians will enjoy reading about his discoveries concerning the three-body problem, the theory of functions, topology, number theory, Lie theory, algebraic geometry, and probability. This scientific biography is the first to comprehensively cover all of Poincare's main contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and physics."---Alan S. McRae, Mathemematical Reviews Clippings
"Jeremy Gray has done a marvelous job of exposition and of binding together the many different cognitive, social and biographical strands into the coherent whole of a challenging, but highly rewarding, 'scientific biography'."---Klaus Hentschel, British Journal for the History of Science
"A good intellectual biography of an artist should help the reader see how a particular worldview shapes the pursuit of art. Gray's book does that most admirably."---Daniel S. Alexander, H-France Review
"Henry Poincar is likely to remain the standard by which scientific biographies, at least those that concern physicists and mathematicians, are judged for some time."---Christopher Cumo, Canadian Journal of History
"I warmly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in the development of modern mathematics. It will surely be the definitive scientific biography of Poincare for the foreseeable future."---John Stillwell, Notices of the AMS
"Gray describes Poincar's scientific epoch in a beautiful way. Due attention is paid to the mathematical and further scientific aspects of his life, and the intellectual complexity of his achievements, both in their range and their depth, are amply discussed. Gray displays a mastery of his material that is rare even among historians of mathematics and science, and his biography is richly rewarding, engrossing, and informative. He deserves our congratulations."---H. W. Broer, Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics
"Gray succeeds admirably in presenting both the conceptual and the historical context necessary to appreciate Poincar's contributions. Gray's masterful biography may well serve as a standard example for future endeavors of this kind."---Tilman Sauer, Isis
"The obvious virtue of this book is its comprehensiveness. The deeper virtue is to connect Poincar's views of all the parts of his work and to encourage more of that. Gray gives us Poincar's view of Science as a whole."---Colin McLarty, Mathematical Intelligencer
"The book is an endless source of interesting insights by Poincar. . . . I would recommend the book for mathematicians, mathematics educators, and philosophers in higher education who want a rich understanding of Poincar, his work, and his times."---Mary L. Garner, Mathematics Teacher

Author Bio

Jeremy Gray is professor of the history of mathematics at the Open University, and an honorary professor at the University of Warwick. His most recent book is Plato's Ghost: The Modernist Transformation of Mathematics (Princeton).