Huguette Delavault

Delavault was born on 15 January 1924, in Andilly, Charente-Maritime;[2][3] her parents were both teachers.[1] She studied at a school for teachers, the École normale d'instituteurs in La Rochelle, France, from 1940 to 1943, and then became a student at the École normale supérieure de Fontenay-aux-Roses from 1946 to 1949.[1][2][3] After interrupting her studies for health reasons,[3] in 1952 she passed her agrégation in mathematics.[1][2][3] She became a researcher at CNRS from 1952 to 1958, while earning a doctorate in mathematics in 1957 from the University of Paris under the supervision of Henri Villat; her dissertation applied the Laplace transform and Hankel transform to the heat equation and Maxwell's equations, using cylindrical coordinates.[1][3][4] She became a researcher at the University of Rennes in 1958, was promoted to professor in 1962, and remained there until 1970, when she became a professor at the École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs de Caen.[1][3] She retired in 1984.[1]

Delavault died on 2 April 2003.[3]

From 1976 onward Delavault was a prominent activist for feminist causes, including popularizing science and mathematics among women and providing equal opportunities for them both in the academy and in the public sector.[1][2] She served as deputy director of the École normale supérieure de Fontenay-aux-Roses from 1976 to 1980, and was twice president of l'Association française des femmes diplômées des universités (the French association for university women).[1]

Delavault became an officer in the Order of Academic Palms in 1967. In 1971 she became a chevalier (knight) in the French National Order of Merit, and in 1995 a chevalier in the Legion of Honour.[1][2][3]