befriended eminent mathematicians Joseph Bertrand, Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, and Joseph Liouville, he took and passed the examinations for the baccalauréat, which he was awarded in 1847. He married Joseph Bertrand's sister, Louise Bertrand, in 1848. In 1848, Hermite returned to the École Polytechnique as répétiteur and examinateur d'admission. In 1856 he contracted smallpox. Through the influence of Augustin-Louis Cauchy and of a nun who nursed him, he resumed the practice of his Catholic faith. In July 1848, he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences. In 1869, he succeeded Jean-Marie Duhamel as professor of mathematics, both at the École Polytechnique, where he remained until 1876, and at the University of Paris, where he remained until his death. From 1862 to 1873 he was lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure. Upon his 70th birthday, he was promoted to grand officer in the French Legion of Honour. Hermite died in Paris on 14 January 1901, aged 78. Contribution to mathematics An inspiring teacher, Hermite strove to cultivate admiration for simple beauty and discourage rigorous minutiae. His correspondence with Thomas Stieltjes testifies to the great aid he gave those beginning scientific life. His published courses of lectures have exercised a great influence. His important original contributions to pure mathematics, published in the major mathematical journals of the world, dealt chiefly with Abelian and elliptic functions and the theory of numbers. In 1858, Hermite showed that equations of the fifth degree could be solved by elliptic functions. In 1873, he proved that e, the base of the natural system of logarithms, is transcendental. Techniques similar to those used in Hermite's proof of e transcendence were used by Ferdinand von Lindemann in 1882 to show that π is transcendental. Publications The following is a list of his works: "Sur quelques applications des fonctions elliptiques", Paris, 1855; Page images from Cornell. "Cours d'Analyse de l'École Polytechnique. Première Partie", Paris: Gauthier–Villars, 1873. "Cours professé à la Faculté des Sciences", edited by Andoyer, 4th ed., Paris, 1891; Page images from Cornell. "Correspondance", edited by Baillaud and Bourget, Paris, 1905, 2 vols.; PDF copy from UMDL. "Œuvres de Charles Hermite", edited by Picard for the Academy of Sciences, 4 vols., Paris: Gauthier–Villars, 1905, 1908, 1912 and 1917; PDF copy from UMDL. "Œuvres de Charles Hermite", reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; . Quotations Legacy In addition to the mathematics properties named in his honor, the Hermite crater