Preda V. Mihăilescu (born 23 May 1955) is a Romanian mathematician, best known for his proof of the 158-year-old Catalan's conjecture.
Born in Bucharest,[1] he is the brother of Vintilă Mihăilescu.
[2] His PhD thesis, titled Cyclotomy of rings and primality testing,[3] was written under the direction of Erwin Engeler and Hendrik Lenstra.
[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.