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Henri Padé

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Henri Padé
Born(1863-12-17)17 December 1863
Abbeville, Somme, France
Died9 July 1953(1953-07-09) (aged 89)
Alma materÉcole Normale Supérieure
Known forPadé approximant
Padé table
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
ThesisSur la representation approchee d'une fonction par des fractions rationelles
Doctoral advisorCharles Hermite

Henri Eugène Padé (French: [pade]; 17 December 1863 – 9 July 1953) was a French mathematician, who is now remembered mainly for his development of Padé approximation techniques for functions using rational functions.

Education and career

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Padé studied at École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He then spent a year at Leipzig University and the University of Göttingen, where he studied under Felix Klein and Hermann Schwarz.

In 1890 Padé returned to France, where he taught in Lille while preparing his doctorate under Charles Hermite. His doctoral thesis described what is now known as the Padé approximant. He then became an assistant professor at Université Lille Nord de France, where he succeeded Émile Borel as a professor of rational mechanics at École Centrale de Lille.

Padé taught at Lille until 1902, when he moved to Université de Poitiers. He became recteur of Académie de Besançon and Dijon in 1923. He later became Recteur of Académie de Aix-Marseilles until he retired in 1934.

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  • Media related to Henri Padé at Wikimedia Commons
  • O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Henri Padé", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  • Henri Padé at the Mathematics Genealogy Project