PhD Student, University Paris Cité, Laboratoire SPHere UMR 7219
Contact : bonvoisin.clement [at] gmail.com
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Contemporary history of mathematics
Military uses of science
Circulation of knowledge
Transnational history of science
My thesis, supervised by Karine Chemla and Jean-Baptiste Grodwohl, aims at understanding the history of a mathematical optimization tool, Pontryagin’s maximum principle. The emergence of this result, which became a tool for solving optimization problems, takes place in a context of collaborations between engineers, mathematicians and the military, in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. My work focuses on understanding both the circulation of knowledge that led to the formulation of this mathematical result, and the circulation of the tool itself. Most particularly, I focus on the political, institutionnal and technical contexts in which these circulations took place, and show how these allow for a proper understanding of the ways in which mathematical knowledge has been elaborated.
EDUCATION
2021 - 2024 : PhD Student at SPHERE, with contract with Université Paris Cité.
2020 - 2021 : Master 2 LOPHISS (Université Paris Cité)
2017 - 2020 : PhD Student at laboratory Jacques-Louis Lions, Université Paris Diderot (thesis not defended)
2013 - 2017 : Normalien at ENS Cachan, department of mathematics.
TEACHING
Since September 2022, I am an instructor at the department of History and philosophy of science (HPS) of the Université Paris Cité. Aside from corrections of end-of-terms examinations in the first year of medecine studies (PASS), I teach in different courses of the History and philosophy of science Master’s Program of the department:
History and philosophy of mathematics (2nd year of the Master’s program)
History of mathematics (2nd year of the Master’s program)
Introduction to the history of mathematics (1st year of the Master’s program)
Introduction to the history of science (1st year of the Master’s program)
Science, Technology and Society (2nd year of the Master’s program)
During my PhD in mathematics, I have also been an instructor at the Department of Mathematics of the Université Paris Diderot (now Université Paris Cité), teaching a variety of courses for undergraduates in Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Engineering Science.
PRESENTATIONS
Presentations :
Going down in history? How Magnus Hestenes became a predecessor of Pontryagin’s maximum principle (1948 - 1961). Colloquium of the Revue d’histoire des mathématiques, November 30, 2023.
Pontryagin’s maximum principle. A case study on the how historical narratives on science are built? (1941 - 1965). ’Journée’ Early-career scholars organised by the Société Française d’Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques, November 24, 2023
Building (on) a commentary. Tsien Hsue-shen’s Engineering Cybernetics as a case study for adaptations in the history of science. Seminar History of Science, History of Texts, Laboratoire SPHERE, November 9, 2023.
Shedding light and casting shadow. Historiographical issues around the biographical texts on Irmgard Flügge-Lotz (1903-1974), Seminar DISc, Laboratoire SPHERE, April 26, 2023
From Schwarz-Weiß-Steuerungen to bang-bang controls. Mathematical translations of an engineering problem in the dissertation of Donald Bushaw (1952). Seminar Mathematics 19th-21st centuries, history and philosophy, Laboratoire SPHERE, April 18, 2023.
Is an equation just an equation? Computing instruments and status of an equation in a research memorandum by Magnus Hestenes (1950), Seminar DISc, Laboratoire SPHERE, November 16, 2022
A Soviet mathematical tool in the United States : Leonard Berkovitz’s paper on Lev Pontryagin’s maximum principle (1961). Seminar Mathematics 19th-21st centuries, history and philosophy, Laboratoire SPHERE, June 14, 2022
Studying a monograph through its bibliography: the case of The Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes (1961). Seminar DISc, Laboratoire SPHERE, April 6, 2022.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Scientific responsibilities
Member of the organisation of the seminar on History and philosophy of mathematics, Laboratoire SPHERE (2022 - 2024)
Member of the organisation of the seminar on Mathematics 19th-21st centuries, Laboratoire SPHERE (2022 - 2024)
Member of the organisation of the 33rd Novembertagung on the History and philosophy of mathematics, held at the University of Rijeka on September 15-16, 2023
Organisation of a session on mathematics and war in the History and philosophy of mathematics Seminar, Laboratoire SPHERE (February 2023)
Organisation of two sessions on bibliographies in the history of science, in the History of science, history of texts Seminar, Laboratoire SPHERE (December 2022, October 2023)
Member of the organisation of the 2022 edition of the Doctoral School 623 ("Knowledge, Science, Education") ’Journées’ (workshops for Ph.D. students and researchers)
Other responsibilities
Representative of the doctoral students at the Council of Laboratoire SPHERE (since September 2023)
Representative of the doctoral students of Laboratoire SPHERE at the Council of the Doctoral School 623 (September 2021 - September 2023)
