When Poincaré later enrolled in school he was a brilliant student, excelling in nearly every subject in the Lycée (now renamed after him) and winning first prizes in a competition among the top students from all the Lycées across France. He did not learn by rote memorization, however, but by linking ideas in a visual manner, an approach attributed to his poor eyesight that prevented him from seeing what was on the blackboard. He received a doctoral degree in mathematics based on a thesis in differential mathematics that some of his reviewers criticized. He then taught in a university, where he also had critics of his disorganized style, but in 1886 gained an appointment to a prestigious chair of mathematical physics and probability at the Sorbonne. He taught there until his death at age 58. | When Poincaré later enrolled in school he was a brilliant student, excelling in nearly every subject in the Lycée (now renamed after him) and winning first prizes in a competition among the top students from all the Lycées across France. He did not learn by rote memorization, however, but by linking ideas in a visual manner, an approach attributed to his poor eyesight that prevented him from seeing what was on the blackboard. He received a doctoral degree in mathematics based on a thesis in differential mathematics that some of his reviewers criticized. He then taught in a university, where he also had critics of his disorganized style, but in 1886 gained an appointment to a prestigious chair of mathematical physics and probability at the Sorbonne. He taught there until his death at age 58. |