PlanetPhysics/Andre Bloch

Andr\'e Bloch (1893 - 1948) French mathematician perhaps best known for Bloch's theorem on holomorphic disks.

(He is not to be confused with Felix Bloch who was a Swisss-American theoretical physicist who introduced certain highly symmetric wave functions, now called "Bloch waves", that describe electron distributions in crystalline metals, and a corresponding theorem on eigenfunctions of periodic particle wavefunctions that hold only for crystalline materials as later proved by P.W. Anderson and Sir Neville Mott).

In 1914, Andr\'e Bloch briefly served in the French Army during World War I. Three years later, Bloch killed three relatives and was confined to a mental institution.

From there he collaborated by mail with other important mathematicians such as Jacques Hadamard and George P\'olya.

In 1948, Bloch was awarded the Becquerel Prize.

[more to come]... (Preliminary version prepared by PrimeFan.)