Baron Pierre Charles François Dupin (6 October 1784, Varzy,

Nièvre Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) was a French

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, engineer, economist and politician, particularly known for work in the field of mathematics, where the

Dupin cyclide In mathematics, a Dupin cyclide or cyclide of Dupin is any geometric inversion of a standard torus, cylinder or double cone. In particular, these latter are themselves examples of Dupin cyclides. They were discovered by (and named after) Charle ...

and

Dupin indicatrix In differential geometry, the Dupin indicatrix is a method for characterising the local shape of a surface. Draw a plane parallel to the tangent plane and a small distance away from it. Consider the intersection of the surface with this plane. Th ...

are named after him; and for his work in the field of statistical and

thematic map A thematic map is a type of map that portrays the geographic pattern of a particular subject matter (theme) in a geographic area. This usually involves the use of map symbols to visualize selected properties of geographic features that are not ...

ping.

Palsky, Gilles Gilles Palsky (born 1962), is a French geographer and Professor at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris, France from 2007 to 2015. He is a member of the editorial board of ''Cybergéo'' and ''Imago Mundi,'' and known for his work on the hist ...

.
Connections and Exchanges in European Thematic Cartography. The case of XIXth century choropleth maps
" ''Formatting Europe. Mapping a continent.'' 2007 In 1826 he created the earliest known

choropleth map A choropleth map () is a type of statistical thematic map that uses pseudocolor, i.e., color corresponding with an aggregate summary of a geographic characteristic within spatial enumeration units, such as population density or per-capita inc ...

Michael Friendly Michael Louis Friendly (born 1945) is an American-Canadian psychologist, Professor of Psychology at York University in Ontario, Canada, and director of its Statistical Consulting Service, especially known for his contributions to graphical metho ...

(2008)
"Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization"

Life and work

He was born in Varzy in France, the son of Charles Andre Dupin, a lawyer, and Catherine Agnes Dupin. Dupin studied

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

with

Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Duri ...

at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

and then became a naval engineer (

ENSTA The ENSTA Paris, officially École nationale supérieure de techniques avancées ( en, Superior National School of Advanced Techniques) is a prestigious French graduate school of engineering ("''école d'ingénieurs''"). Founded in 1741, it is th ...

). His mathematical work was in

descriptive In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All acad ...

and

differential geometry Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...

. He was the discoverer of conjugate tangents to a point on a surface and of the

. Dupin participated in the Greek science revival by teaching mathematics and mechanics lessons in

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

in 1808. One of his students was Giovanni Carandino, who would go on to be the founder of the Greek Mathematics School in the 1820s. From 1807 Dupin was responsible for the restoration of the damaged port and arsenal at

. He founded the

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

Maritime Museum in 1813. In 1818, Dupin was elected to the body of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

, one of the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...

's five Academies. Carte figurative de l'instruction populaire de la France

He was appointed professor at the

Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

in 1819; he kept this post until 1854. In 1822, Dupin was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

. In 1826 he published a

showing the distribution of

illiteracy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in Writing, written form in some specific context of use. In other wo ...

in France, using shadings (from black to white), the first known instance of what is called a

today. Dupin had been inspired by the work of the German statisticians

Georg Hassel Johann Georg Heinrich Hassel (30 December 1770 in Wolfenbüttel – 18 January 1829 in Weimar) was a German geographer and statistician. He was an influential figure in the early 19th century and published several large books of geography and ...

and

August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome (8 June 1753 in Sengwarden – 11 June 1833 in Rödelheim) was a German economist and statistician, and Professor of Cameralism at the University of Giessen. He is known particularly for his 1782 product map of Euro ...

. Dupin was named rapporteur for the central jury of the Exposition des produits de l'industrie française en 1834. For each branch of industry he noted the quantities and value of French exports and imports, with comparative figures for 1823, 1827 and 1834. Dupin also had a political career and was appointed to the Senate in 1852.

Selected publications

* Dupin, François Pierre Charles. ''Développements de géométrie.'' (1813). * Dupin, François Pierre Charles. ''Discours et leçons sur l'industrie, le commerce, la marine, et sur les sciences appliquées aux arts.'' 1825. * Dupin, François Pierre Charles.
Canal maritime de Suez. Imprimerie de Mallet-Bachelier
'' 1858.

References

External links

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupin, Charles 1784 births 1873 deaths People from Nièvre French Roman Catholics Politicians from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Orléanists Party of Order politicians Bonapartists Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Bourbon Restoration Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy Members of the 2nd Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy Members of the 3rd Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic French Senators of the Second Empire 18th-century French mathematicians 19th-century French mathematicians Differential geometers Information visualization experts French civil engineers École Polytechnique alumni Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences