Preda Mihăilescu

Who is Preda Mihăilescu?

Preda V. Mihăilescu is a Romanian mathematician, best known for his proof of Catalan's conjecture.

Born in Bucharest, he is the brother of Vintilă Mihăilescu. After leaving Romania in 1973, he settled in Switzerland. He studied mathematics and computer science in Zürich, receiving his Ph.D. from ETH Zürich in 1997. His thesis, titled Cyclotomy of rings and primality testing, 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 is a professor at the Georg-August University of Göttingen.

In 2002, Mihăilescu proved Catalan's conjecture. This number-theoretical conjecture, formulated by French mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan in 1844, had stood unresolved for over a century. Mihăilescu's proof appeared in Crelle's Journal in 2004. The result is now occasionally known as Mihăilescu's theorem.

In 2009, Mihăilescu announced a proof of Leopoldt's conjecture for all number fields.