Autor: Etienne Bézout

Etienne Bézout (1730-1783) is credited with the invention of the determinant (named Bézoutian by Sylvester) as well as several key innovations to solve simultaneous polynomial equations in many unknowns. By the time of his death, he was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and the Examiner of the Guards of the Navy and of the Corps of Artillery. Eric Feron Dutton/Ducoffe Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Visiting Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is affiliated with the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems and the Operations Research Center. He is also an Adviser to the French Academy of Technologies. His interests span numerical analysis, optimization, systems analysis, and their applications to aerospace engineering.