1904-

Born in 1904 in Nancy, France, Cartan went on to teach at several prominent universities in his native land: Lycée Caen, Lille, Strasbourg, Paris, and Orsay. As the son of Elie Cartan (who modernized differential geometry), he devoted his life to mathematics. Among his accomplishments (under the name Bourbaki) were more than 30 volumes on Eléments de mathématique, illustrating the axiomatic structure of modern mathematics. He was elected to a Fellowship in the Royal Society of London (1971) and was given an honorary membership in the London Mathematical Society in 1959.