French mathematician and politician who built of Poincaré's work in investigating nonlinear second order differential equations with or without singularities to classify their analytic properties. In the process, he discovered the Painlevé transcendents. Painlevé also studied regularization (1897). Besides his mathematical activities, Painlevé served as French defense minister in World War I. He was also an aviation enthusiast and, through his friendship with Orville and Wilbur Wright, he became aviation's first passenger.

Additional biographies: MacTutor (St. Andrews)