Person: Duhamel, Jean Marie Constant
Jean-Marie Duhamel worked on partial differential equations and applied his methods to the theory of heat, to rational mechanics and to acoustics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Monge remained as director of the École Polytechnique and it was as this time that Duhamel began his university studies there.
- Duhamel returned to Rennes, but did not go back to Paris after the École Polytechnique was reorganised and reopened in 1817, preferring to remain in Rennes where he studied law.
- Duhamel did return to Paris after taking his law degree and taught mathematics and physics both at the Institution Massin and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.
- Despite having a heavy work laod, Duhamel found time to continue his mathematical studies and in 1823 he presented his first paper Problèmes et développements sur diverses parties des mathématiques Ⓣ(Problems and developments in various parts of mathematics) written jointly with Antoine-André-Louis Reynaud.
- Duhamel was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1840.
- Appointed as entrance examiner at the École Polytechnique in 1835, Duhamel was named professor of analysis and mechanics in 1836.
- Also from 1851 Duhamel was professor at the Faculté des Sciences in Paris.
- Duhamel worked on partial differential equations and applied his methods to the theory of heat, to rational mechanics, and to acoustics.
- 'Duhamel's principle' in partial differential equations arose from his contributions to the distribution of heat in a solid with a variable boundary temperature.
- However, Duhamel did some experimental work of his own, particularly in the area of vibrating strings.
- Duhamel published Cours d'analyse de l'École Polytechnique Ⓣ(Analysis Course of the polytechnic) in two volumes, the first in 1840 and the second in the following year.
Born 5 February 1797, St Malo, France. Died 29 April 1872, Paris, France.
View full biography at MacTutor
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
