John Henry Constantine Whitehead (known commonly as Henry Whitehead), had a large influence on the development of homotopy theory, which is based on a certain kind of mapping of topological spaces. With Oswald Veblen, he also wrote the cla...

The French mathematician and astronomer, Jacques-Philippe-Marie Binet, was born at Rennes, France on February, 2 1786. He died in Paris on May 12, 1856. In 1806, following two years of study at the École Polytechnique, Binet receive...

Swiss mathematician Jakob Steiner (1796-1863) made groundbreaking intellectual contributions to the field of mathematics in the area of geometry. Beginning his education at the age of 18, Steiner attended universities in both Berlin and He...

James Gregory's work laid the foundation for the development of calculus, and his work in astronomy and optics for astronomical observations influenced the works of Isaac Newton. He was born in Drumoak, Scotland, the son of John Gregory, a...

James Stirling (1926-1992) was a frequently honored Scottish architect and city planner, whose work influenced architecture in Britain and Western Europe (particularly Germany) beginning in the 1960s. Two good examples of his work may be f...

The chief contribution by the French mathematician and physicist Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783) is D'Alembert's principle, in mechanics. He was also a pioneer in the study of partial differential equations. Jean le Rond d'Alembert was...

The contribution of Argand to mathematics is an excellent example of being at the right place at the right time. Argand was not a trained mathematician, but a Parisian bookkeeper who never associated with or belonged to any group of mathem...

Jerzy Neyman (1894-1981) was a scholar, teacher, and pioneer of statistical mathematics and probability. He helped establish the field of statistical mathematics through the innovative Neyman-Pearson theory and by being a tireless advocate...

Johann and Jakob Bernoulli, the children of a prominent Basel, Switzerland, couple, were the first in a family line of gifted mathematicians that would endure for three generations. Jakob originally trained as a theologian and was destined...

Dirichlet was born in Düren, Germany, the son of the local postmaster. The young Dirichlet was intensely interested in mathematics. At the age of 14, he attended the University of Cologne where he studied under scientific luminaries s...

The Scottish mathematician John Napier (1550-1617) discovered logarithms and effectively introduced the modern notation of decimal fractions. John Napier, or Neper, the son of Sir Archibald Napier, was born at Merchiston Castle near Edinbu...

John Venn is most famous for his development of diagrams, later named after him, that depict relationships between sets. Although Gottfried Wilhelm von Liebniz and Leonhard Euler had used similar diagrams, Venn's were considered more descr...

Born in Ashford, England, Wallis was the son of minister, who died when Wallis was only six years old. In 1631 he attended the Martin Holbeach school in Essex, where he trained in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and logic. Although mathematics was n...

The French mathematical physicist Jean Baptiste Joseph, Baron Fourier (1768-1830), was the first to discuss in a comprehensive manner the various aspects of the flow of heat in bodies. On March 21, 1768, J.B.J. Fourier was born in Auxerre....

Every branch of mathematics was enriched by the contributions of the Italian-born French mathematician Comte Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813). He is best known for his analytical formulations of the calculus of variations and mechanics. J...

Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) was an American mathematical physicist whose pioneer work in statistical mechanics laid the basis for the development of physical chemistry as a science. When Josiah Willard Gibbs began his work, thermodyna...