The French Mathematical Society

Founded in 1872

The French Mathematical Society, Société Mathématique de France, was founded in 1872 although moves towards the creation of the Society began two years earlier. It was created for:-

... defending and promoting mathematics and mathematicians.

From the year after the Society was founded the Society has published the Bulletin de Société Mathématique de France which:-

... intends to be one of the greatest international journals through its rigorous scientific policy. It also makes sure that it includes a lot of young researchers' work.

The Society also publishes Mémoires de Société Mathématique de France. To celebrate its centenary the Society began publishing the journal Astérisque. It:-

... is a top-level international journal. It publishes various monographs, renowned seminars or reports of the main international colloquiums .... The articles are chosen for their ability to show a research branch under a new perspective. Each volume deals with only one subject. The whole annual collection covers all the different fields of mathematics.

The Revue d'Histoire des mathématiques began publication in 1995. It contains original articles studying the history of mathematics from the 17th century onwards.

There are many examples on ongoing cooperation between the Society and the French Applied and Industrial Mathematical Society. Together they promote the public awareness of mathematics, trying to raise the profile of the subject with the general public. They also cooperate on reports on the teaching of mathematics and together provide information on mathematics jobs in teaching and universities.

Presidents of the French Mathematical Society

1873 M Chasles 1874 Lafon de Ladebat 1875 I-J Bienaymé 1876 De la Gournerie 1877 A Mannheim 1878 G Darboux 1879 P Bonnet 1880 C Jordan 1881 E Laguerre 1882 G Halphen 1883 E Rouché 1884 Emile Picard 1885 P Appell 1886 H Poincaré 1887 Fouret 1888 Laisant 1889 Andre 1890 Haton de la Goupilliere 1891 Collignon 1892 Vicaire	1893 Georges Humbert 1894 Picquet 1895 E Goursat 1896 G Koenigs 1897 Emile Picard 1898 Lecornu 1899 Guyon 1900 H Poincaré 1901 Doocagne 1902 Raffy 1903 P Painlevé 1904 Carvallo 1905 E Borel 1906 J Hadamard 1907 Blutel 1908 Perrin 1909 Bioche 1910 Bricard 1911 Levy 1912 Andoyer	1913 E Cosserat 1914 E Vessiot 1915 E Cartan 1916 Fouche 1917 Guichard 1918 Maillet 1919 H Lebesgue 1920 J Drach 1921 Boulanger 1922 Camene 1923 P Appell 1924 Levy 1925 P Montel 1926 P Fatou 1927 Defontviolant 1928 Thybaut 1929 ? 1930 Jouguet 1931 A Denjoy 1932 G Julia
1933 Lienard 1934 Chazy 1935 M Fréchet 1936 Garnier 1937 J Pérès 1938 Valiron 1939 Vergne 1940 ? 1941 ? 1942 Platrier 1943 Gambier 1944 Chapelon 1945 Darmois 1946 Favard 1947 Chatelet 1948 Janet 1949 Brard 1950 Henri Cartan 1951 Lamothe 1952 M-L Dubreil-Jacotin	1953 Mandelbroit 1954 J Leray 1955 Marchaud 1956 Roy 1957 Marchaud 1958 P P Dubreil 1959 A Lichnerowicz 1960 Brelot 1961 G Choquet 1962 Schwartz 1963 Lelong 1964 J Dieudonné 1965 C Ehresmann 1966 A Revuz 1967 Reeb 1968 R Thom 1969 Pisot 1970 J-P Serre 1971 Cerf 1972-1973 J-P Kahane	1974 Poitou 1975 Amice 1976 Godbillon 1977 Neveu 1978 Koszul 1979 Berger 1980 Berger 1981 Herve 1982-1983 C Houzel 1984 J-L Verdier 1985 B Malgrange 1986-1987 J-F Mela 1988 M Demazure 1989 G Schiffmann 1990-1992 J-P Bourguignon 1992-1994 D Barlet 1994 - 1996 R Langevin 1996- 1998 J-J Risler 1998- 2001 M Martin-Deschamps 2001 - Michel Waldschmidt

Visit the society website.

References (show)

H Gispert, La France mathématique : La Société mathématique de France (1872-1914), Cahiers d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences. Nouvelle Série 34, Société Mathématique de France (Paris, 1991).
C Picard and M Martin-Deschamps, Société Mathématique de France, European Mathematical Society Newsletter 40 (June, 2001), 18.

Last Updated August 2004