Born in Bourbon l'Archambault, January 21 1915. Died December 11 1998.

Training and professional career

• 1937-1941 : Research associate, then research fellow at CNRS
• 1941-1949 : Lecturer, then Professor of Rational Mechanics at the Strasbourg Faculty of Science
• 1945 : Lecturer in the Peccot lecture series at the Collège de France
• 1949-1952 : Professor of Mathematical Methods of Physics at the Paris Faculty of Science
• 1952-1986 : Professor of Mathematical Physics at the Collège de France

Learned societies and academies

• Foreign member of the Milan and Turin Academies of Science
• Foreign member of the Société Royale des Sciences de Liège
• 1962 : Associate member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome
• 1963 : Member of the Académie des Sciences de Paris
• 1968 : Associate Member of the Real Academia de Ciencias, Madrid
• 1975 : Associate member of the Académie Royale de Belgique, Brussels
• 1981 : Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

Awards and distinctions

• 1955 : Fubini International Prize for Mathematics
• 1959 : Former President of the Société Mathématique de France
• 1966 : Commander of the Order of Merit
• 1966 : Commandeur des Palmes Académiques
• 1973 : Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences
• 1976 : Doctor honoris causa of the Universities of Waterloo
• 1977 : Commander of the Légion d'Honneur
• 1984 : Honorarydoctorate from the University of Coïmbra