Jeanne Peiffer facts for kids

Jeanne Peiffer was born on August 20, 1948, in Mersch, Luxembourg. She is a special kind of historian who studies the history of mathematics. This means she looks at how math ideas and discoveries have changed over time. She used to be a top research leader at a big French science organization called the CNRS.

About Jeanne Peiffer

Early Life and Studies

Jeanne Peiffer went to the University of Luxembourg. She studied there and later became a professor at the same university. She learned a lot from her teacher, René Taton, who was also a famous historian of science.

Her Work in Mathematics History

Jeanne Peiffer has done a lot of important work in the history of mathematics.

• She helped edit the letters of a famous mathematician named Johann Bernoulli. These letters helped people understand how mathematicians communicated long ago.
• She also translated a book about geometry by Albrecht Dürer into French.
• With another expert, Amy Dahan, she wrote a popular book about the history of mathematics. This book was so good that it was translated into English and German, so more people could read it.

Sharing Knowledge

Jeanne Peiffer also helped share new ideas and discoveries.

• From 1995 to 2015, she was an editor for two important magazines about the history of mathematics: Revue d'histoire des mathématiques [fr] and Historia Mathematica.
• She studied how scientists shared their ideas through special magazines, called scientific journals, in the 1600s and 1700s.
• She also looked at how letters were used as a way for mathematicians to talk to each other in the 1700s.