Christine Proust facts for kids
Christine Proust (born in 1953) is a French expert who studies the history of mathematics and ancient civilizations, especially Babylonian mathematics. She is a senior researcher at a group called SPHERE, which is part of the CNRS and Paris Diderot University.
At SPHERE, she helps lead a project called SAW (Mathematical Sciences in the Ancient World). This project looks at how math was understood and used in ancient times around the world.
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Christine Proust's Journey in Math and History
Christine Proust first worked as a high school mathematics teacher for about 20 years. After that, she decided to study the history of science. She earned her doctorate degree in 2004 from Paris Diderot University.
Later, in 2011, she became a director of research at the SPHERE laboratory. She also visited several important research places. These included the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2009 and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University in 2010.
Discovering Ancient Babylonian Math
A big part of Christine Proust's work involves studying ancient clay tablets from Babylonia. These tablets contain mathematical problems and solutions from a very long time ago. Many of these tablets were found in a place called Nippur.
Her research helped us understand how people learned math in ancient Babylon. She showed how students learned to write and do math, and how they used different number systems. She published two books about these important tablets: Tablettes mathématiques de Nippur and Tablettes mathématiques de la collection Hilprecht.
Christine Proust also helped create an exhibit called Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics. This exhibit, shown in New York, displayed famous math tablets like YBC 7289 and Plimpton 322. These tablets show how advanced Babylonian math was, even before the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras.
She has also studied the notes and letters of Otto Neugebauer. He was a very important historian who started the modern study of ancient mathematical texts written in cuneiform (an ancient writing system).
Books by Christine Proust
Christine Proust has written and edited several books about her research:
- Tablettes mathématiques de Nippur (2007)
- Tablettes mathématiques de la collection Hilprecht (2008)
She has also edited other books, including:
- Scientific Sources and Teaching Contexts Throughout History: Problems and Perspectives (with Alain Bernard, 2014)
- A Mathematician's Journeys: Otto Neugebauer and Modern Transformations of Ancient Science (with Alexander Jones and John Steele, 2016)
- Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk (with John Steele, 2019)
Awards and Recognition
Christine Proust has received several awards for her important work. In 2011, she won the Prix Paul Doistau-Émile Blutet from the French Academy of Sciences. This award recognized her overall work, especially her publications about the Nippur tablets.
In 2019, she became a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science. In 2021, she was awarded one of the two Kenneth O. May Prize medals. This prize is given by the International Commission on the History of Mathematics.
