Member-only story
Last week we covered David Hilbert, the mathematician for whom Hilbert spaces were named after. Today we’ll cover Jacques Hadamard, the mathematician for whom as you can guess the Hadamard gate is named after!
Who was Jacques Hadamard?
The School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrew has a pretty comprehensive bio on Jacques Hadamard that I’ve summarised for you below.
Jacques Hadamard began his schooling at the Lycée Charlemagne where his father taught. In his first few years at school he was good at all subjects except mathematics. He excelled in particular in Greek and Latin.
In 1884 Hadamard took the entrance examinations for École Polytechnique and École Normale Supérieure; he was placed first in both examinations. He chose the École Normale Supérieure, where he soon made friends with his fellow students including Duhem and Painlevé. Among his teachers were Jules Tannery, Hermite, Darboux, Appell, Goursat and Émile Picard. Already at this stage he began to undertake research, investigating the problem of finding an estimate for the determinant generated by coefficients of a power series. He graduated from the École Normale Supérieure on 30 October 1888.
While undertaking research for his doctorate he worked as a school teacher. At first he was attached to the Lycée de Caen but without teaching duties. From June 1889 he taught at the Lycée Saint-Louis and then from September 1890 at the Lycée…
