Augustin Cauchy, Theorem maker (1789-1857, Year of Entry: 1805)

After completing his education at École Polytechnique and École des Ponts, Augustin Cauchy traveled to the city of Cherbourg to construct a military port. In 1815, he returned to l’X as a professor of mathematical analytics and was later awarded the Grand Prize in Mathematics from the French Academy of Sciences. He lectured in mechanics at the Sorbonne and wrote didactic treatises from 1821 to 1829. After the end of the July 1830 Revolution, his avowed religious beliefs and anti-liberal stance compelled him to go into exile. Once settled in Prague in 1833, he became the science tutor of the Duke of Bordeaux. Following his return to France and the 1848 Revolution, he became appointed as a professor of mathematical astronomy at the Sorbonne. Augustin Cauchy, this forbearer of the theory of groups and brilliant mind in optics behind research on electromagnetic waves, was subsequently exempted from Napoleon’s loyalty oath.