Paul de Casteljau: The story of my adventure

44 Pages Posted: 12 Jul 2023 Last revised: 1 Feb 2024

See all articles by Andreas Mueller

Andreas Mueller

Kempten University of Applied Sciences

Date Written: July 1, 2023

Abstract

Paul de Faget de Casteljau (19.11.1930-24.3.2022) has left us an extensive autobiography, written in 1997. In 19 sections, he takes us through his eventful life which he describes with wit and humor. We read about his youth in occupied France and his education at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He describes in detail various episodes from his time at Citroën, the situation during and after the discovery of his now famous algorithm, the takeover by Peugeot, his ban from working on CAD and his corporate rehabilitation thanks to his advances in polar forms and quaternions. His memoirs end with his departure from Citroën and his first invited talks at academic conferences. The paper contains the transcribed French original, its English translation and numerous notes and annotations. The handwritten text is available as a digital supplement.

Keywords: curves, surfaces, de Casteljau algorithm, history of CAD, quaternions, Citroën, corporate culture

Suggested Citation

Müller, Andreas,

Paul de Casteljau: The story of my adventure

(July 1, 2023). Computer Aided Geometric Design, volume 110, 2024 [10.1016/j.cagd.2024.102278], Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4497291 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cagd.2024.102278

Andreas Müller (Contact Author)

Kempten University of Applied Sciences ( email )

Bahnhofstraße 61
Kempten, 87435
Germany

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