(April 29, 1854 – July 17, 1912)

Intuitive and creative, Henri Poincaré is befittingly the last of the universal mathematicians; as well as the first recipient of Sylvester Medal. While a kid, his schoolteacher nicknamed him “The Math Monster”, after realizing his great aptitude. He would go on to win the Concours Général competition in France, before taking the math world by the storm. His works ramified every branch of mathematics, although those pertaining to Homology and Algebraic Topology made more headlines. As with other math geniuses before him, Poincaré dabbled into theoretical physics: helping to strengthen the bases of numerous concepts. He also founded the Chaos Theory, advanced various aspects of Differential Equations; and in 1904, proposed his Poincaré Conjecture. Nobody succeeded in resolving that conjecture until 2002, when Grigori Perelman proved it and became entitled to the world’s first million dollar prize in mathematics. Having analyzed Bernhard Riemann’s wonderful works, Henri Poincaré anticipated the Minkowski’s Space, with which he lent geometric support to Albert Einstein’s Relativity Theory. Among others, he is credited with clarifying (as logical paradox) the mass-energy equivalence of Special Relativity. His credibility, alongside those of others (like Max Planck’s), helped facilitate early acceptance of the theory. And despite habitual absentmindedness, he remained very innovative and productive. The fact that he excelled in all branches of mathematics reaffirmed his prestige as the last tour-de-force. Apart from Relativity, Poincaré’s works helped advance various scientific areas. Several concepts, as well as the 319-kilometer-wide Poincaré lunar crater and the 2021 Poincaré asteroid, are named in his honor.

 

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