Charles Hermite was one of the founders of analytic number theory. This discipline uses the techniques of analysis (the calculus) to handle questions about positive whole numbers. Hermite is also remembered for having shown that one of the central constants of mathematics, e, the base of natural logarithms, belongs in the class of transcendental numbers.

The son of Ferdinand Hermite and Madeleine Lallemand, Hermite was born on Christmas Eve, 1822. His ancestry was both French and German and the town Dieuze, Hermite's birthplace, was at one time claimed by both France and Germany. Nevertheless, Hermite considered himself French all his life and became one of the mainstays of the French academic establishment.

Hermite attended the Collège Henri IV and proceeded from there to the Collège Louis-le-Grand, where he was taught mathematics by the same instructor who had supervised the work of the ill-fated French genius...