| Théodore Olivier | |
| Birth Date: | 14 January 1793 |
| Birth Place: | Lyon, France |
| Death Place: | Lyon, France |
| Resting Place: | Montparnasse Cemetery |
| Resting Place Coordinates: | 48.8381°N 2.3269°W |
| Field: | Mathematics |
| Work Institutions: | Ecole centrale des arts et manufactures |
| Alma Mater: | École Polytechnique |
Théodore Olivier (1793–1853) was a French mathematician.
Olivier studied in the Licée Imperial of Lyon where he obtained in 1811 a degree in mathematics with high honours. After this, he went to the École Polytechnique.[1] Olivier looked like Napoleon, but nobody could prove that Olivier was an illegitimate son of the Emperor.[2]
In 1815, he was an adjunct professor in the Artillery School at Metz and, in 1819, he became a full professor. In 1821, at the request of the King of Sweden, Charles XIV John (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte), he went to Sweden to organize the military school of Marieberg.[3]
Returning to France, Oliver criticized the pedagogical system in the École Polytechnique and in 1829, jointly with Alphonse Lavallée, Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Jean Claude Eugène Péclet, founded the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, where he was professor of geometry and mechanics for the rest of his life.[4] He also was, between 1830 and 1844, a professor at the École Polytechnique and, from 1838, a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers.[5]
Olivier is mainly known for the construction of three-dimensional models of geometry for pedagogical purposes.[4] Most of them were sold to North American institutions such as Union College, the University of Columbia and West Point, where they are preserved.[6]
Olivier also studied the theory of gears, writing an extensive treatise on the subject, and constructing models, preserved in the Musée des Art et Offices in Paris.[7]
Olivier had no children, but he was the uncle of the French explorer Aimé Olivier de Sanderval.