Charles Hermite

Charles Hermite (pronounced "air MEET") (1822 - 1901) was a French mathematician who did research on number theory, quadratic forms, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, elliptic functions, and algebra. Hermite polynomials and Hermitian operators are named in his honor.

He was the first to prove that e, the base of natural logarithms, is a transcendental number. His methods were later used by Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann for the proof of his celebrated theorem that &pi is transcendental.

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