André Bloch (mathematician)

André Bloch (20 November 1893 – 11 October 1948) was a French mathematician who is best remembered for his fundamental contribution to complex analysis.

Bloch was institutionalized in a mental asylum for thirty-one years of his life, during which all of his mathematical output was produced.

Bloch was born in 1893 in Besançon, France. According to one of his teachers, Georges Valiron, both André Bloch and his younger brother Georges were in the same class in October 1910. Valiron believed Georges to have the better talent, and due to lack of preparation, André finished last in the class. André was spared from failing the class by convincing Ernest Vessiot to give him an oral exam. The exam convinced Vessiot of Andre's talent and both André and Georges entered the École Polytechnique.

Both brothers served for a year in the military prior to World War I. Both André and Georges studied for only one year at the École Polytechnique before the outbreak of the war.

Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, André and Georges Bloch were drafted. André, as a second-lieutenant in the artillery, was assigned to the headquarters of General De Castelnau in Nancy.

Both Bloch brothers were injured: André suffered from a fall from an observation post, while Georges sustained a head wound which cost him an eye. Georges was released from service and returned to the École Polytechnique on 7 October 1917. André, however, was allowed to convalesce but not released from duty.

On 17 November 1917, while on convalescent leave from service in World War I, Bloch killed his brother Georges, and his aunt and uncle. Several conjectures about the motives for Bloch's crime exist among mathematicians. However, Cartan and Ferrand quote Henri Baruk, who was the medical head of the asylum where Bloch was confined. Bloch told Baruk that the murders were a eugenic act, in order to eliminate branches of his family affected by mental illness.

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