Preda Mihăilescu

Preda V. Mihăilescu (born 23 May 1955) is a Romanian mathematician, best known for his proof of the 158-year-old Catalan's conjecture.

Preda Mihăilescu
Born	(1955-05-23) 23 May 1955 (age 70) Bucharest, Romania
Nationality	Romanian
Alma mater	ETH Zürich
Known for	proving Catalan's conjecture
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Göttingen University of Paderborn
Doctoral advisor	Erwin Engeler Hendrik Lenstra

Biography

Born in Bucharest,^[1] he is the brother of Vintilă Mihăilescu.

After leaving Romania in 1973, he settled in Switzerland.^[1] He studied mathematics and computer science in Zürich, receiving a PhD from ETH Zürich in 1997.^[2] His PhD thesis, titled Cyclotomy of rings and primality testing,^[3] was written under the direction of Erwin Engeler and Hendrik Lenstra.

For several years, he did research at the University of Paderborn, Germany. Since 2005, he has held a professorship at the University of Göttingen.

Major research

In 2002, Mihăilescu proved Catalan's conjecture.^[4][5][6] This number-theoretical conjecture, formulated by the French and Belgian mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan in 1844, had stood unresolved for 158 years. Mihăilescu's proof appeared in Crelle's Journal in 2004.