Dr. Nicolas Michel

Postdoctoral Researcher
Fundamental Mathematics
n.p.r.michel@uu.nl

Research articles

  • (forthcoming) The Ancients and the Moderns: Chasles on Euclid’s Lost Porisms and the Pursuit of Geometry, Science in Context, co-authored with I. Smadja.
  •  Un cours inédit de Chasles en Sorbonne. 'Considérations sur la théorie des sections coniques', Discours d'ouverture du cours de géométrie supérieure (1847-1848), Revue d'Histoire des Mathématiques 27 (2), 2021, pp. 229-296. Joint work with Ivahn Smadja.
  • Mathematics in the Archives: deconstructive historiography and the shaping of modern geometry, British Journal for the History of Science, 54 (4), 2021, pp. 423-441. Joint work with Ivahn Smadja.
  • Tic-Tac Geometry: A Theorem in Full Swing, Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde 22 (3), September 2021, pp. 170-178.
  • Mathematical Selves and the Shaping of Mathematical Modernism: Conflicting Epistemic Ideals in the Emergence of Enumerative Geometry (1864–1893), Isis, 2021, vol. 112 (1), pp. 68-92.
  • The values of generality and simplicity in Chasles’ geometrical theory of attraction, Journal of General Philosophy of Science, Special Issue on Newtonian Mechanics (eds. J. Ferreiròs & M. de Pàz), vol.51 (2020), pp. 115-146.

Book reviews

  • Niccolò Guicciardini (ed.), Anachronisms in the History of Mathematics. Essays on the Interpretation of Mathematical Texts, Revue d’Histoire des Sciences, 2022/1, Tome 75.
  • R. Dedekind & H. Weber: Théorie des fonctions algébriques d'une variable. Traduction introduite et annotée par E. Haffner, Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 2020/2, Tome 73, pp. 368-371.

Invited talks

  • Mar. 1st 2022 -- In Search of the Absolute: Zeuthen’s holism and the enumerative geometry of conics, Utrecht Geometry Center Seminar, Utrecht University.
  • Feb. 15th 2022 -- The Invention of Greece: Orientalism in the History of Mathematics, Workshop "Equations of Power: The Historical Roots of Mathematics," University College Utrecht.
  • Apr. 15th 2021 -- Les figures du mathématicien dans l’émergence de la géométrie énumérative (1864-1893), Séminaire d’histoire des mathématiques, Université de Lille.
  • Oct. 30th 2020 -- ‘Tic-tac geometry’: The principle of correspondence from Chasles to Segre, Claremont History and Philosophy of Mathematics Seminar, Harvey Mudd College Campus, CA.
  • June 20th 2019 -- Conceptual change and textual practices in the reception of Chasles' theory of characteristics, Troisièmes Rencontres Franco-Mexicaines du Séminaire Avancé d’Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences, Centre d’Etudes Mexicaines UNAM-Francia, Paris, June 19-21.
  • Feb. 21st 2019 -- "D'un trait de plume": the writing of generality in Chasles’ higher geometry, History of Mathematics Colloquium, Open University, Milton Keynes (organized by B. Stenhouse).
  • Oct. 12th 2018 -- The Principle of Signs in Chasles' Higher Geometry: Simplicity, Generality, Expressivity, Workshop 'Simplicity Seminar', Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin (organized by K. Chemla & L. Daston).
  • Dec. 1st 2017 -- Une proposition 'tantôt vraie, tantôt fausse' : autour de la controverse Chasles-De Jonquières, Journée de la Revue d’Histoire des Mathématiques, Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris (organized by F. Brechenmacher, R. Chorlay, & R. Tazzioli).
  • Nov. 9th 2017 -- Euclid's Porisms Lost and Regained? Ancient Traditions, Modern Reconstructions, joint talk with Z. Karimian & I. Smadja, Research School 'The Flux of Mathematics', CIRM, Luminy (organized by the GDR 3398 'Histoire des Mathématiques').

Conference papers (selection)

  • Nov. 21st 2021, Sweet is the lore which Nature brings: Clarity, Simplicity, and Naturalness in Chasles’s and Poinsot’s Geometrical Mechanics, History of Science Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans.
  • July 26th 2021, The Sailor and The Savant: The ebb and flow of a scientific partnership, 26th ICHST, Prague.
  • July 12th 2021, ‘Une question de point de vue’: The negotiation of mathematical truth and its modalities in the correspondence of Georges-Henri Halphen, People, Places, Practices. Joint BSHM - CSHPM Conference, St-Andrews.
  • Mar. 6th 2020 -- Euclid at a Crossroads. On Chasles' Interpretation of Euclid’s Lost Porisms, joint paper with I. Smadja, Workshop 'Greek Geometrical Analysis. Problems and Prospect', Université Clermont-Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand (organized by S. Gandon & G. Longa).
  • Feb. 29th 2020 -- Zero will tear us apart: negative numbers, geometrical exactness, and the applicability of algebra in 19th-century French mathematics, BSHM 'Research in Progress' Conference, Oxford (organized by C. Hollings & B. Stenhouse).
  • Sep. 11th 2019 -- Historical Geometry: Chasles as an historian and practitioner of mathematics, 1st ESHS Young Scholars Conference, Observatoire de Paris, Paris.
  • Aug. 10th 2019 -- Avatars of generality: On the circulation and transformation of list-making practices in the context of enumerative geometry, 16th International Congress on Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Prague. Part of a symposium on 'Communication and exchanges among scientific cultures' (organized by Nina Atanasova, Karine Chemla, Peeter Müürsepp & Vitaly Pronskikh).
  • Apr. 10th 2019 -- Equations without algebra: on Chasles' principle of signs, British Society for the History of Science - Postgraduate Conference, Cambridge. Speaker and organizer for a panel on notational innovations in the history of mathematics, with A. Steensen & B. Stenhouse.
  • Nov. 30th 2018 -- Numbers as symbols, numbers as concepts, Novembertagung 2018, Sevilla.
  • Sep. 16th 2018 -- On the Permanent Reshaping of Mathematical Objects, ESHS Biennal Conference, Institute of Education, London.
  • Nov. 2nd 2017 -- Epistemological and Ontological Shifts in the Development of Enumerative Geometry, Novembertagung 2017, Brussels.
  • Sep. 19th 2017 -- On Chasles’ geometrical theory of attraction, Workshop 'Mathematics and Mechanics in the Newtonian Age', University of Sevilla (organized by J. Ferreiròs & M. de Pàz).