Earliest mathematicians

Little is known of the earliest mathematics, but the famous Ishango Bone from Early
Stone-Age Africa has tally marks suggesting arithmetic. The markings include six
prime numbers (5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19) in order, though this is probably coincidence.

The advanced artifacts of Egypt's Old Kingdom and the Indus-Harrapa civilization
imply strong mathematical skill, but the first written evidence of advanced arithmetic
dates from Sumeria, where 4500-year old clay tablets show multiplication and
division problems; the first abacus may be about this old. By 3600 years ago,
Mesopotamian tablets show tables of squares, cubes, reciprocals, and even logarithms,
using a primitive place-value system (in base 60, not 10). Babylonians were familiar
with the Pythagorean Theorem, solutions to quadratic equations, even cubic equations
(though they didn't have a general solution for these), and eventually even developed
methods to estimate terms for compound interest.

Also at least 3600 years ago, the Egyptian scribe Ahmes produced a famous
manuscript (now called the Rhind Papyrus), itself a copy of a late Middle Kingdom
text. It showed simple algebra methods and included a table giving optimal
expressions using Egyptian fractions. (Today, Egyptian fractions lead to challenging
number theory problems with no practical applications, but they may have had
practical value for the Egyptians. To divide 17 grain bushels among 21 workers, the
equation 17/21 = 1/2 + 1/6 + 1/7 has practical value, especially when compared with
the "greedy" decomposition 17/21 = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/17 + 1/1428.)

The Pyramids demonstrate that Egyptians were adept at geometry, though little
written evidence survives. Babylon was much more advanced than Egypt at arithmetic
and algebra; this was probably due, at least in part, to their place-value system. But
although their base-60 system survives (e.g. in the division of hours and degrees into
minutes and seconds) the Babylonian notation, which used the equivalent of IIIIII
XXXXXIIIIIII XXXXIII to denote 417+43/60, was unwieldy compared to the "ten
digits of the Hindus." (In 2016 historians were surprised to decode ancient Babylonian
texts and find very sophisticated astronomical calculations of Jupiter's orbit.)

The Egyptians used the approximation (4/3)4 (derived from the idea that a circle
of diameter 9 has about the same area as a square of side 8). Although the ancient
Hindu mathematician Apastambha had achieved a good approximation for 2, and the
ancient Babylonians an ever better 2, neither of these ancient cultures achieved
a approximation as good as Egypt's, or better than 25/8, until the Alexandrian
era.

Early Vedic mathematicians

The greatest mathematics before the Golden Age of Greece was in India's early Vedic
(Hindu) civilization. The Vedics understood relationships between geometry and
arithmetic, developed astronomy, astrology, calendars, and used mathematical forms
in some religious rituals.

The earliest mathematician to whom definite teachings can be ascribed was Lagadha,
who apparently lived about 1300 BC and used geometry and elementary trigonometry
for his astronomy. Baudhayana lived about 800 BC and also wrote on algebra and
geometry; Yajnavalkya lived about the same time and is credited with the then-best
approximation to . Apastambha did work summarized below; other early Vedic
mathematicians solved quadratic and simultaneous equations.

Other early cultures also developed some mathematics. The ancient Mayans
apparently had a place-value system with zero before the Hindus did; Aztec
architecture implies practical geometry skills. Ancient China certainly developed
mathematics, though little written evidence survives prior to Chang Tshang's famous
book.

Thales of Miletus (ca 624 - 546 BC) Greek domain

Thales was the Chief of the "Seven Sages" of ancient Greece, and has been called the
"Father of Science," the "Founder of Abstract Geometry," and the "First Philosopher."
Thales is believed to have studied mathematics under Egyptians, who in turn were
aware of much older mathematics from Mesopotamia. Thales may have invented the
notion of compass-and-straightedge construction. Several fundamental theorems about
triangles are attributed to Thales, including the law of similar triangles (which Thales
used famously to calculate the height of the Great Pyramid) and "Thales' Theorem"
itself: the fact that any angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle. (The other
"theorems" were probably more like well-known axioms, but Thales proved Thales'
Theorem using two of his other theorems; it is said that Thales then sacrificed an ox to
celebrate what might have been the very first mathematical proof!) Thales noted that,
given a line segment of length x, a segment of length x/k can be constructed by first
constructing a segment of length kx.

Thales was also an astronomer; he invented the 365-day calendar, introduced the use
of Ursa Minor for finding North, invented the gnomonic map projection (the first of
many methods known today to map (part of) the surface of a sphere to a plane, and is
the first person believed to have correctly predicted a solar eclipse. His theories of
physics would seem quaint today, but he seems to have been the first to describe
magnetism and static electricity. Aristotle said, "To Thales the primary question was
not what do we know, but how do we know it." Thales was also a politician, ethicist,
and military strategist. It is said he once leased all available olive presses after
predicting a good olive season; he did this not for the wealth itself, but as a
demonstration of the use of intelligence in business. Thales' writings have not
survived and are known only second-hand. Since his famous theorems of geometry
were probably already known in ancient Babylon, his importance derives from
imparting the notions of mathematical proof and the scientific method to ancient
Greeks.

Thales' student and successor was Anaximander, who is often called the "First
Scientist" instead of Thales: his theories were more firmly based on experimentation
and logic, while Thales still relied on some animistic interpretations. Anaximander is
famous for astronomy, cartography and sundials, and also enunciated a theory of
evolution, that land species somehow developed from primordial fish! Anaximander's
most famous student, in turn, was Pythagoras. (The methods of Thales and Pythagoras
led to the schools of Plato and Euclid, an intellectual blossoming unequaled until
Europe's Renaissance. For this reason Thales may belong on this list for his historical
importance despite his relative lack of mathematical achievements.)

Apastambha (ca 630-560 BC) India

The Dharmasutra composed by Apastambha contains mensuration techniques, novel

geometric construction techniques, a method of elementary algebra, and what may be
the first known proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. Apastambha's work uses the
excellent (continued fraction) approximation 2 577/408, a result probably derived
with a geometric argument.

Apastambha built on the work of earlier Vedic scholars, especially Baudhayana, as

well as Harappan and (probably) Mesopotamian mathematicians. His notation and
proofs were primitive, and there is little certainty about his life. However similar
comments apply to Thales of Miletus, so it seems fair to mention Apastambha (who
was perhaps the most creative Vedic mathematician before Panini) along with Thales
as one of the earliest mathematicians whose name is known.

Pythagoras of Samos (ca 578-505 BC) Greek domain

Pythagoras, who is sometimes called the "First Philosopher," studied under
Anaximander, Egyptians, Babylonians, and the mystic Pherekydes (from whom
Pythagoras acquired a belief in reincarnation); he became the most influential of early
Greek mathematicians. He is credited with being first to use axioms and deductive
proofs, so his influence on Plato and Euclid may be enormous. He and his students
(the "Pythagoreans") were ascetic mystics for whom mathematics was partly a
spiritual tool. (Some occultists treat Pythagoras as a wizard and founding mystic
philosopher.) Pythagoras was very interested in astronomy and seems to have been the
first man to realize that the Earth was a globe similar to the other planets. He and his
followers began to study the question of planetary motions, which would not be
resolved for more than two millenia. He believed thinking was located in the brain
rather than heart. The words philosophy and mathematics are said to have been coined
by Pythagoras.

Despite Pythagoras' historical importance I may have ranked him too high: many
results of the Pythagoreans were due to his students; none of their writings survive;
and what is known is reported second-hand, and possibly exaggerated, by Plato and
others. Some ideas attributed to him were probably first enunciated by successors like
Parmenides of Elea (ca 515-440 BC). Archaeologists now believe that he was not first
to invent the diatonic scale: Here is a diatonic-scale song from Ugarit which predates
Pythagoras by eight centuries.

Pythagoras' students included Hippasus of Metapontum, the famous anatomist and

physician Alcmaeon, Milo of Croton, and Croton's daughter Theano (who may have
been Pythagoras's wife). The term Pythagorean was also adopted by many disciples
who lived later; these disciples include Philolaus of Croton, the natural philosopher
Empedocles, and several other famous Greeks. Pythagoras' successor was apparently
Theano herself: the Pythagoreans were one of the few ancient schools to practice
gender equality.

Pythagoras discovered that harmonious intervals in music are based on simple rational
numbers. This led to a fascination with integers and mystic numerology; he is
sometimes called the "Father of Numbers" and once said "Number rules the universe."
(About the mathematical basis of music, Leibniz later wrote, "Music is the pleasure
the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting."
Other mathematicians who investigated the arithmetic of music included Huygens,
Euler and Simon Stevin.)

The Pythagorean Theorem was known long before Pythagoras, but he is often credited
with the first proof. (Apastambha proved it in India at about the same time; some
conjecture that Pythagoras journeyed to India and learned of the proof there.) He may
have discovered the simple parametric form of primitive Pythagorean triplets (xx-yy,
2xy, xx+yy), although the first explicit mention of this may be in Euclid's Elements.
Other discoveries of the Pythagorean school include the construction of the regular
pentagon, concepts of perfect and amicable numbers, polygonal numbers, golden ratio
(attributed to Theano), three of the five regular solids (attributed to Pythagoras
himself), and irrational numbers (attributed to Hippasus). It is said that the discovery
of irrational numbers upset the Pythagoreans so much they tossed Hippasus into the
ocean! (Another version has Hippasus banished for revealing the secret for
constructing the sphere which circumscribes a dodecahedron.)

In addition to Parmenides, the famous successors of Thales and Pythagoras include

Zeno of Elea (see below), Hippocrates of Chios (see below), Plato of Athens (ca 428-
348 BC), Theaetetus (see below), and Archytas (see below). These early Greeks
ushered in a Golden Age of Mathematics and Philosophy unequaled in Europe until
the Renaissance. The emphasis was on pure, rather than practical, mathematics. Plato
(who ranks #40 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in
History) decreed that his scholars should do geometric construction solely with
compass and straight-edge rather than with "carpenter's tools" like rulers and
protractors.

Panini (of Shalatula) (ca 520-460 BC) Gandhara (India)

Panini's great accomplishment was his study of the Sanskrit language, especially in
his text Ashtadhyayi. Although this work might be considered the very first study of
linguistics or grammar, it used a non-obvious elegance that would not be equaled in
the West until the 20th century. Linguistics may seem an unlikely qualification for a
"great mathematician," but language theory is a field of mathematics. The works of
eminent 20th-century linguists and computer scientists like Chomsky, Backus, Post
and Church are seen to resemble Panini's work 25 centuries earlier. Panini's
systematic study of Sanskrit may have inspired the development of Indian science and
algebra. Panini has been called "the Indian Euclid" since the rigor of his grammar is
comparable to Euclid's geometry.

Although his great texts have been preserved, little else is known about Panini. Some
scholars would place his dates a century later than shown here; he may or may not
have been the same person as the famous poet Panini. In any case, he was the very last
Vedic Sanskrit scholar by definition: his text formed the transition to the Classic
Sanskrit period. Panini has been called "one of the most innovative people in the
whole development of knowledge;" his grammar "one of the greatest monuments of
human intelligence."
Zeno of Elea (ca 495-435 BC) Greek domain

Zeno, a student of Parmenides, had great fame in ancient Greece. This fame, which
continues to the present-day, is largely due to his paradoxes of infinitesimals, e.g. his
argument that Achilles can never catch the tortoise (whenever Achilles arrives at the
tortoise's last position, the tortoise has moved on). Although some regard these
paradoxes as simple fallacies, they have been contemplated for many centuries. It is
due to these paradoxes that the use of infinitesimals, which provides the basis for
mathematical analysis, has been regarded as a non-rigorous heuristic and is finally
viewed as sound only after the work of the great 19th-century rigorists, Dedekind and
Weierstrass. (Eubulides was another ancient Greek famous for paradoxes, e.g. "This
statement is a lie" -- the sort of inconsistency later used in proofs by Gdel and
Turing.)

Zeno's Arrow Paradox (at any single instant an arrow is at a fixed position, so where
does its motion come from?) has lent its name to to the Quantum Zeno Effect, a
paradox of quantum physics.

Hippocrates of Chios (ca 470-410 BC) Greek domain

Hippocrates (no known relation to Hippocrates of Cos, the famous physician) wrote
his own Elements more than a century before Euclid. Only fragments survive but it
apparently used axiomatic-based proofs similar to Euclid's and contains many of the
same theorems. Hippocrates is said to have invented the reductio ad absurdem proof
method. Hippocrates is most famous for his work on the three ancient geometric
quandaries: his work on cube-doubling (the Delian Problem) laid the groundwork for
successful efforts by Archytas and others; his circle quadrature was of course
ultimately unsuccessful but he did prove ingenious theorems about "lunes" (certain
circle fragments); and some claim Hippocrates was first to trisect the general angle.
Hippocrates also did work in algebra and rudimentary analysis.

(Doubling the cube and angle trisection are often called "impossible," but they are
impossible only when restricted to collapsing compass and unmarkable straightedge.
There are ingenious solutions available with other tools. Construction of the regular
heptagon is another such task, with solutions published by four of the men on this
List.)

Archytas of Tarentum (ca 420-350 BC) Greek domain

Archytas was an important statesman as well as philosopher. He studied under
Philolaus of Croton, was a friend of Plato, and tutored Eudoxus and Menaechmus. In
addition to discoveries always attributed to him, he may be the source of several of
Euclid's theorems, and some works attributed to Eudoxus and perhaps Pythagoras.
Recently it has been shown that the magnificent Mechanical Problems attributed to
(pseudo-)Aristotle were probably actually written by Archytas, making him one of the
greatest mathematicians of antiquity.

Archytas introduced "motion" to geometry, rotating curves to produce solids. If his

writings had survived he'd surely be considered one of the most brilliant and
innovative geometers of antiquity; he already appears on Cardano's List of 12 Greatest
Geniuses. Archytas' most famous mathematical achievement was "doubling the cube"
(constructing a line segment larger than another by the factor cube-root of two).
Although others solved the problem with other techniques, Archytas' solution for cube
doubling was astounding because it wasn't achieved in the plane, but involved the
intersection of three-dimensional bodies. This construction (which introduced
the Archytas Curve) has been called "a tour de force of the spatial imagination." He
invented the term harmonic mean and worked with geometric means as well (proving
that consecutive integers never have rational geometric mean). He was a true
polymath: he advanced the theory of music far beyond Pythagoras; studied sound,
optics and cosmology; invented the pulley (and a rattle to occupy infants); wrote
about the lever; developed the curriculum called quadrivium; and is supposed to have
built a steam-powered wooden bird which flew for 200 meters. Archytas is sometimes
called the "Father of Mathematical Mechanics."

Some scholars think Pythagoras and Thales are partly mythical. If we take that view,
Archytas (and Hippocrates) should be promoted in this list.

Theaetetus of Athens (417-369 BC) Greece

Theaetetus is presumed to be the true author of Books X and XIII of

Euclid's Elements, as well as some work attributed to Eudoxus. He was considered
one of the brightest of Greek mathematicians, and is the central character in two of
Plato's Dialogs. It was Theaetetus who discovered the final two of the five "Platonic
solids" and proved that there were no more. He may have been first to note that the
square root of any integer, if not itself an integer, must be irrational. (The case 2 is
attributed to a student of Pythagoras.)
Eudoxus of Cnidus (408-355 BC) Greek domain

Eudoxus journeyed widely for his education, despite that he was not wealthy, studying
mathematics with Archytas in Tarentum, medicine with Philiston in Sicily, philosophy
with Plato in Athens, continuing his mathematics study in Egypt, touring the Eastern
Mediterranean with his own students and finally returned to Cnidus where he
established himself as astronomer, physician, and ethicist. What is known of him is
second-hand, through the writings of Euclid and others, but he was one of the most
creative mathematicians of the ancient world.

Many of the theorems in Euclid's Elements were first proved by Eudoxus. While
Pythagoras had been horrified by the discovery of irrational numbers, Eudoxus is
famous for incorporating them into arithmetic. He also developed the earliest
techniques of the infinitesimal calculus; Archimedes credits Eudoxus with inventing a
principle eventually called the Axiom of Archimedes: it avoids Zeno's paradoxes by, in
effect, forbidding infinities and infinitesimals. Eudoxus' work with irrational numbers,
infinitesimals and limits eventually inspired masters like Dedekind. Eudoxus also
introduced an Axiom of Continuity; he was a pioneer in solid geometry; and he
developed his own solution to the Delian cube-doubling problem. Eudoxus was the
first great mathematical astronomer; he developed the complicated ancient theory of
planetary orbits; and may have invented the astrolabe. He may have invented the
365.25-day calendar based on leap years, though it remained for Julius Caesar to
popularize it. (It is sometimes said that he knew that the Earth rotates around the Sun,
but that appears to be false; it is instead Aristarchus of Samos, as cited by
Archimedes, who may be the first "heliocentrist.")

Four of Eudoxus' most famous discoveries were the volume of a cone, extension of
arithmetic to the irrationals, summing formula for geometric series, and viewing as
the limit of polygonal perimeters. None of these seems difficult today, but it does
seem remarkable that they were all first achieved by the same man. Eudoxus has been
quoted as saying "Willingly would I burn to death like Phaeton, were this the price for
reaching the sun and learning its shape, its size and its substance."

Aristotle of Stagira (384-322 BC) Macedonia

Aristotle is considered the greatest scientist of the ancient world, and the most
influential philosopher and logician ever; he ranks #13 on Michael Hart's list of the
Most Influential Persons in History. His science was a standard curriculum for almost
2000 years. Although the physical sciences couldn't advance until the discoveries by
great men like Newton and Lavoisier, Aristotle's biology and anatomy were superb,
serving as paradigm until modern times.

Aristotle was personal tutor to the young Alexander the Great. Aristotle's writings on
definitions, axioms and proofs may have influenced Euclid. He was also the first
mathematician to write on the subject of infinity. His writings include geometric
theorems, some with proofs different from Euclid's or missing from Euclid altogether;
one of these (which is seen only in Aristotle's work prior to Apollonius) is that a circle
is the locus of points whose distances from two given points are in constant ratio.
Even if, as is widely agreed, Aristotle's geometric theorems were not his own work,
his status as the most influential logician and philosopher makes him a candidate for
the List.

Euclid of Alexandria (ca 322-275 BC) Greece/Egypt

Euclid of Alexandria (not to be confused with Socrates' student, Euclid of Megara,
who lived a century earlier), directed the school of mathematics at the great university
of Alexandria. Little else is known for certain about his life, but several very
important mathematical achievements are credited to him. He was the first to prove
that there are infinitely many prime numbers; he stated and proved the Unique
Factorization Theorem; and he devised Euclid's algorithm for computing gcd. He
introduced the Mersenne primes and observed that (M2+M)/2 is always perfect (in the
sense of Pythagoras) if M is Mersenne. (The converse, that any even perfect number
has such a corresponding Mersenne prime, was tackled by Alhazen and proven by
Euler.) His books contain many famous theorems, though many were due to
predecessors like Hippocrates, Theodorus, Eudoxus, Archytas and Theaetetus. He
may have proved that rigid-compass constructions can be implemented with
collapsing-compass constructions. Although notions of trigonometry were not in use,
Euclid's theorems include some closely related to the Laws of Sines and Cosines.
Among several books attributed to Euclid are The Division of the Scale (a
mathematical discussion of music), The Optics, The Cartoptrics (a treatise on the
theory of mirrors), a book on spherical geometry, a book on logic fallacies, and his
comprehensive math textbook The Elements. Several of his masterpieces have been
lost, including works on conic sections and other advanced geometric topics.
Apparently Desargues' Homology Theorem (a pair of triangles is coaxial if and only if
it is copolar) was proved in one of these lost works; this is the fundamental theorem
which initiated the study of projective geometry. Euclid ranks #14 on Michael Hart's
famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. The Elements introduced the
notions of axiom and theorem; was used as a textbook for 2000 years; and in fact is
still the basis for high school geometry, making Euclid the leading mathematics
teacher of all time. Some think his best inspiration was recognizing that the Parallel
Postulate must be an axiom rather than a theorem.

There are many famous quotations about Euclid and his books. Abraham Lincoln
abandoned his law studies when he didn't know what "demonstrate" meant and "went
home to my father's house [to read Euclid], and stayed there till I could give any
proposition in the six books of Euclid at sight. I then found out what demonstrate
means, and went back to my law studies."

Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) Greek domain

Archimedes is universally acknowledged to be the greatest of ancient mathematicians.
He studied at Euclid's school (probably after Euclid's death), but his work far
surpassed, and even leapfrogged, the works of Euclid. (For example, some of Euclid's
more difficult theorems are easy analytic consequences of Archimedes' Lemma of
Centroids.) His achievements are particularly impressive given the lack of good
mathematical notation in his day. His proofs are noted not only for brilliance but for
unequaled clarity, with a modern biographer (Heath) describing Archimedes' treatises
as "without exception monuments of mathematical exposition ... so impressive in their
perfection as to create a feeling akin to awe in the mind of the reader." Archimedes
made advances in number theory, algebra, and analysis, but is most renowned for his
many theorems of plane and solid geometry. He was first to prove Heron's formula for
the area of a triangle. His excellent approximation to 3 indicates that he'd partially
anticipated the method of continued fractions. He developed a recursive method of
representing large integers, and was first to note the law of exponents, 10a10b =
10a+b. He found a method to trisect an arbitrary angle (using a markable straightedge
the construction is impossible using strictly Platonic rules). One of his most
remarkable and famous geometric results was determining the area of a parabolic
section, for which he offered two independent proofs, one using his Principle of the
Lever, the other using a geometric series. Some of Archimedes' work survives only
because Thabit ibn Qurra translated the otherwise-lost Book of Lemmas; it contains
the angle-trisection method and several ingenious theorems about inscribed circles.
(Thabit shows how to construct a regular heptagon; it may not be clear whether this
came from Archimedes, or was fashioned by Thabit by studying Archimedes' angle-
trisection method.) Other discoveries known only second-hand include
the Archimedean semiregular solids reported by Pappus, and the Broken-Chord
Theorem reported by Alberuni.
Archimedes and Newton might be the two best geometers ever, but although each
produced ingenious geometric proofs, often they used non-rigorous calculus
to discover results, and then devised rigorous geometric proofs for publication. He
used integral calculus to determine the centers of mass of hemisphere and cylindrical
wedge, and the volume of two cylinders' intersection. Although Archimedes didn't
develop differentiation (integration's inverse), Michel Chasles credits him (along with
Kepler, Cavalieri, and Fermat, who all lived more than 18 centuries later) as one of
the four who developed calculus before Newton and Leibniz. He was one of the
greatest mechanists ever: he laid a mathematical foundation for the principles of
leverage; discovered the first law of hydrostatics; and invented the compound pulley,
the hydraulic screwpump (called Archimedes' screw), a miniature planetarium, and
war machines (e.g. catapult and ship-burning mirrors). (Some of these inventions may
predate Archimedes. On the other hand, some scholars attribute the Antikythera
mechanism to Archimedes or his inspiration.) His books include Floating
Bodies, Spirals,The Sand Reckoner, Measurement of the Circle, Sphere and
Cylinder, Plane Equilibriums, Conoids and Spheroids, Quadrature of Parabola,
various now-lost works cited by Pappus or others, possibly The Book of Lemmas, and
(discovered only recently, and often called his most important work) The Method. He
developed the Stomachion puzzle (and solved a difficult enumeration problem
involving it); other famous gems include The Cattle-Problem. The Book of
Lemmas contains various geometric gems ("the Salinon," "the Shoemaker's Knife",
etc.) and is credited to Archimedes by Thabit ibn Qurra but the attribution is disputed.

Archimedes discovered formulae for the volume and surface area of a sphere, and
may even have been first to notice and prove the simple relationship between a circle's
circumference and area. For these reasons, is often called Archimedes' constant. His
approximation 223/71 < < 22/7 was the best of his day. (Apollonius soon surpassed
it, but by using Archimedes' method.) Archimedes' Equiarea Map Theorem asserts
that a sphere and its enclosing cylinder have equal surface area (as do the figures'
truncations). Archimedes also proved that the volume of that sphere is two-thirds the
volume of the cylinder. He requested that a representation of such a sphere and
cylinder be inscribed on his tomb.

That Archimedes shared the attitude of later mathematicians like Hardy and Brouwer
is suggested by Plutarch's comment that Archimedes regarded applied mathematics
"as ignoble and sordid ... and did not deign to [write about his mechanical inventions;
instead] he placed his whole ambition in those speculations the beauty and subtlety of
which are untainted by any admixture of the common needs of life."

Some of Archimedes' greatest writings (including The Method and Floating Bodies)
are preserved only on a palimpsest rediscovered in 1906 and mostly deciphered only
after 1998. Ideas unique to that work are an anticipation of Riemann integration,
calculating the volume of a cylindrical wedge (previously first attributed to Kepler);
along with Oresme and Galileo he was among the few to comment on the
"equinumerosity paradox" (the fact that are as many perfect squares as integers).
Although Euler and Newton may have been the most important mathematicians, and
Gauss, Weierstrass and Riemann the greatest theorem provers, it is widely accepted
that Archimedes was the greatest genius who ever lived. Yet, Hart omits him
altogether from his list of Most Influential Persons: Archimedes was simply too far
ahead of his time to have great historical significance. (Some think the Scientific
Revolution would have begun sooner had The Method been discovered four or five
centuries earlier. You can read a 1912 translation of parts of The Method on-line.)

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC) Greek domain

Eratosthenes was one of the greatest polymaths; he is called the Father of Geography,
was Chief Librarian at Alexandria, was a poet, music theorist, astronomer (e.g.
calculating the Earth's diameter, distance to the Sun, etc.), mechanical engineer
(anticipating laws of elasticity, etc.), and was an outstanding mathematician. He is
famous for his prime number Sieve, but more impressive was his work on the cube-
doubling problem which he related to the design of siege weapons (catapults) where a
cube-root calculation is needed.

Eratosthenes had the nickname Beta; he was a master of several fields, but was only
second-best of his time. His better was also his good friend: Archimedes of Syracuse
dedicated The Method to Eratosthenes.

Apollonius of Perga (262-190 BC) Greek domain

Apollonius Pergaeus, called "The Great Geometer," is sometimes considered the

second greatest of ancient Greek mathematicians. (Euclid, Eudoxus and Archytas are
other candidates for this honor.) His writings on conic sections have been studied until
modern times; he invented the names for parabola, hyperbola and ellipse; he
developed methods for normals and curvature. Although astronomers eventually
concluded it was not physically correct, Apollonius developed the "epicycle and
deferent" model of planetary orbits, and proved important theorems in this area. He
deliberately emphasized the beauty of pure, rather than applied, mathematics, saying
his theorems were "worthy of acceptance for the sake of the demonstrations
themselves." The following generalization of the Pythagorean Theorem, where M is
the midpoint of BC, is called Apollonius' Theorem: AB 2 + AC 2 = 2(AM 2 + BM 2).
Many of his works have survived only in a fragmentary form, and the proofs were
completely lost. Most famous was the Problem of Apollonius, which is to find a circle
tangent to three objects, with the objects being points, lines, or circles, in any
combination. Constructing the eight circles each tangent to three other circles is
especially challenging, but just finding the two circles containing two given points
and tangent to a given line is a serious challenge. Vieta was renowned for discovering
methods for all ten cases of this Problem. Other great mathematicians who have
enjoyed reconstructing Apollonius' lost theorems include Fermat, Pascal, Newton,
Euler, Poncelet and Gauss.

In evaluating the genius of the ancient Greeks, it is well to remember that their
achievements were made without the convenience of modern notation. It is clear from
his writing that Apollonius almost developed the analytic geometry of Descartes, but
failed due to the lack of such elementary concepts as negative numbers. Leibniz wrote
"He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements
of the foremost men of later times."

Chang Tshang (ca 200-142 BC) China

Chinese mathematicians excelled for thousands of years, and were first to discover
various algebraic and geometric principles. There is some evidence that Chinese
writings influenced India and the Islamic Empire, and thus, indirectly, Europe.
Although there were great Chinese mathematicians a thousand years before the Han
Dynasty, and innovations continued for centuries after Han, the textbook Nine
Chapters on the Mathematical Art has special importance. Nine Chapters (known in
Chinese as Jiu Zhang Suan Shu or Chiu Chang Suan Shu) was apparently written
during the early Han Dynasty (about 165 BC) by Chang Tshang (also spelled Zhang
Cang).

Many of the mathematical concepts of the early Greeks were discovered

independently in early China. Chang's book gives methods of arithmetic (including
cube roots) and algebra, uses the decimal system (though zero was represented as just
a space, rather than a discrete symbol), proves the Pythagorean Theorem, and includes
a clever geometric proof that the perimeter of a right triangle times the radius of its
inscribing circle equals the area of its circumscribing rectangle. (Some of this may
have been added after the time of Chang; some additions attributed to Liu Hui are
mentioned in his mini-bio; other famous contributors are Jing Fang and Zhang Heng.)

Nine Chapters was probably based on earlier books, lost during the great book
burning of 212 BC, and Chang himself may have been a lord who commissioned
others to prepare the book. Moreover, important revisions and commentaries were
added after Chang, notably by Liu Hui (ca 220-280). Although Liu Hui mentions
Chang's skill, it isn't clear Chang had the mathematical genius to qualify for this list,
but he would still be a strong candidate due to his book's immense historical
importance: It was the dominant Chinese mathematical text for centuries, and had
great influence throughout the Far East. After Chang, Chinese mathematics continued
to flourish, discovering trigonometry, matrix methods, the Binomial Theorem, etc.
Some of the teachings made their way to India, and from there to the Islamic world
and Europe. There is some evidence that the Hindus borrowed the decimal system
itself from books like Nine Chapters.

No one person can be credited with the invention of the decimal system, but key roles
were played by early Chinese (Chang Tshang and Liu Hui), Brahmagupta (and earlier
Hindus including Aryabhata), and Leonardo Fibonacci. (After Fibonacci, Europe still
did not embrace the decimal system until the works of Vieta, Stevin, and Napier.)

Hipparchus of Nicaea and Rhodes (ca 190-127 BC) Greek domain

Ptolemy may be the most famous astronomer before Copernicus, but he borrowed
heavily from Hipparchus, who might be considered the greatest astronomer ever
(ahead even of Galileo and Edwin Hubble). Careful study of the errors in the catalogs
of Ptolemy and Hipparchus reveal both that Ptolemy borrowed his data from
Hipparchus, and that Hipparchus used principles of spherical trig to simplify his work.
Classical Hindu astronomers, including the 6th-century genius Aryabhata, borrow
much from Ptolemy and Hipparchus.

Hipparchus is called the "Father of Trigonometry"; he developed spherical

trigonometry, produced trig tables, and more. He produced at least fourteen texts of
physics and mathematics nearly all of which have been lost, but which seem to have
had great teachings, including much of Newton's Laws of Motion. In one obscure
surviving work he demonstrates familiarity with the combinatorial enumeration
method now called Schrder's Numbers. He invented the circle-conformal
stereographic and orthographic map projections which carry his name. As an
astronomer, Hipparchus is credited with the discovery of equinox precession, length
of the year, thorough star catalogs, and invention of the armillary sphere and perhaps
the astrolabe. He had great historical influence in Europe, India and Persia, at least if
credited also with Ptolemy's influence. (Hipparchus himself was influenced by
Chaldean astronomers.) Hipparchus' work implies a better approximation to than
that of Apollonius, perhaps it was 377/120 as Ptolemy used.
The Antikythera mechanism is an astronomical clock considered amazing for its time.
It was probably built about the time of Hipparchus' death, but lost after a few decades
(remaining at the bottom of the sea for 2000 years). The mechanism implemented the
complex orbits which Hipparchus had developed to explain irregular planetary
motions; it's not unlikely the great genius helped design this intricate analog
computer, which may have been built in Rhodes where Hipparchus spent his final
decades. (Some attribute the mechanism to Archimedes.)

Menelaus of Alexandria (ca 70-135) Egypt, Rome

Menelaus wrote several books on geometry and trigonometry, mostly lost except for
his works on solid geometry. His work was cited by Ptolemy, Pappus, and Thabit;
especially the Theorem of Menelaus itself which is a fundamental and difficult
theorem very useful in projective geometry. He also contributed much to spherical
trigonometry. Disdaining indirect proofs (anticipating later-day constructivists)
Menelaus found new, more fruitful proofs for several of Euclid's results.

Tiberius(?) Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria (ca 90-168) Egypt (in Greco-Roman

domain)

Ptolemy was one of the most famous of ancient Greek scientists. Among his
mathematical results, most famous may be Ptolemy's Theorem
(ACBD = ABCD + BCAD if and only if ABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral). This
theorem has many useful corollaries; it was frequently applied in Copernicus' work.
Ptolemy also wrote on trigonometry, optics, geography, map projections, and
astrology; but is most famous for his astronomy, where he perfected the geocentric
model of planetary motions. For this work, Cardano included Ptolemy on his List of
12 Greatest Geniuses (but removed him from the list after learning of Copernicus'
discovery).

The mystery of celestial motions directed scientific inquiry for thousands of years.
With the notable exception of the Pythagorean Philolaus of Croton, thinkers generally
assumed that the Earth was the center of the universe, but it becomes very difficult to
explain the orbits of the other planets. This problem had been considered by Eudoxus,
Apollonius, and Hipparchus, who developed a very complicated geocentric model
involving concentric spheres and epicyles. Ptolemy perfected (or, rather, complicated)
this model even further, introducing 'equants' to further fine-tune the orbital speeds;
this model was the standard for 14 centuries. While some Greeks, notably Aristarchus
and Seleucus of Seleucia, proposed heliocentric models, these were rejected because
there was no parallax among stars. (Aristarchus guessed that the stars were at an
almost unimaginable distance, explaining the lack of parallax. Aristarchus would be
almost unknown except that Archimedes mentions, and assumes, Aristarchus'
heliocentrism in The Sand Reckoner. I suspect that Archimedes accepted
heliocentrism, but thought saying so openly would distract from his work. Hipparchus
was another ancient Greek who considered heliocentrism but, because he never
guessed that orbits were ellipses rather than cascaded circles, was unable to come up
with a heliocentric model that fit his data.) Aryabhata, Alhazen, Alberuni, and
Regiomontanus are other great mathematicians who at least accepted the possibility of
heliocentrism.

The great skill demonstrated by Ptolemy and his predecessors in developing their
complex geocentric cosmology may have set back science since in fact the Earth
rotates around the Sun. The geocentric models couldn't explain the observed changes
in the brightness of Mars or Venus, but it was the phases of Venus, discovered by
Galileo after the invention of the telescope, that finally led to general acceptance of
heliocentrism. (Since the planets move without friction, their motions offer a pure
view of the Laws of Motion; thus the heliocentric breakthroughs of Copernicus,
Kepler and Newton triggered the advances in mathematical physics which led to
Scientific Revolution.)

Liu Hui (ca 220-280) China

Liu Hui made major improvements to Chang's influential textbook Nine Chapters,
making him among the most important of Chinese mathematicians ever. (He seems to
have been a much better mathematician than Chang, but just as Newton might have
gotten nowhere without Kepler, Vieta, Huygens, Fermat, Wallis, Cavalieri, etc., so
Liu Hui might have achieved little had Chang not preserved the ancient Chinese
learnings.) Among Liu's achievements are an emphasis on generalizations and proofs,
incorporation of negative numbers into arithmetic, an early recognition of the notions
of infinitesimals and limits, the Gaussian elimination method of solving simultaneous
linear equations, calculations of solid volumes (including the use of Cavalieri's
Principle), anticipation of Horner's Method, and a new method to calculate square
roots. Like Archimedes, Liu discovered the formula for a circle's area; however he
failed to calculate a sphere's volume, writing "Let us leave this problem to whoever
can tell the truth."

Although it was almost child's-play for any of them, Archimedes, Apollonius, and
Hipparchus had all improved precision of 's estimate. It seems fitting that Liu Hui
did join that select company of record setters: He developed a recurrence formula for
regular polygons allowing arbitrarily-close approximations for . He also devised an
interpolation formula to simplify that calculation; this yielded the "good-enough"
value 3.1416, which is still taught today in primary schools. (Liu's successors in China
included Zu Chongzhi, who did determine sphere's volume, and whose approximation
for held the accuracy record for nine centuries.)

Diophantus of Alexandria (ca 250) Greece, Egypt

Diophantus was one of the most influential mathematicians of antiquity; he wrote

several books on arithmetic and algebra, and explored number theory further than
anyone earlier. He advanced a rudimentary arithmetic and algebraic notation, allowed
rational-number solutions to his problems rather than just integers, and was aware of
results like the Brahmagupta-Fibonacci Identity; for these reasons he is often called
the "Father of Algebra." His work, however, may seem quite limited to a modern eye:
his methods were not generalized, he knew nothing of negative numbers, and, though
he often dealt with quadratic equations, never seems to have commented on their
second solution. His notation, clumsy as it was, was used for many centuries. (The
shorthand x3 for "x cubed" was not invented until Descartes.)

Very little is known about Diophantus (he might even have come from Babylonia,
whose algebraic ideas he borrowed). Many of his works have been lost, including
proofs for lemmas cited in the surviving work, some of which are so difficult it would
almost stagger the imagination to believe Diophantus really had proofs. Among these
are Fermat's conjecture (Lagrange's theorem) that every integer is the sum of four
squares, and the following: "Given any positive rationals a, b with a>b, there exist
positive rationals c, d such that a3-b3 = c3+d3." (This latter "lemma" was investigated
by Vieta and Fermat and finally solved, with some difficulty, in the 19th century. It
seems unlikely that Diophantus actually had proofs for such "lemmas.")

Pappus of Alexandria (ca 300) Egypt, Greece

Pappus, along with Diophantus, may have been one of the two greatest Western
mathematicians during the 13 centuries that separated Hipparchus and Fibonacci. He
wrote about arithmetic methods, plane and solid geometry, the axiomatic method,
celestial motions and mechanics. In addition to his own original research, his texts are
noteworthy for preserving works of earlier mathematicians that would otherwise have
been lost.
Pappus' best and most original result, and the one which gave him most pride, may be
the Pappus Centroid theorems (fundamental, difficult and powerful theorems of solid
geometry later rediscovered by Paul Guldin). His other ingenious geometric theorems
include Desargues' Homology Theorem (which Pappus attributes to Euclid), an early
form of Pascal's Hexagram Theorem, called Pappus' Hexagon Theorem and related to
a fundamental theorem: Two projective pencils can always be brought into a
perspective position. For these theorems, Pappus is sometimes called the "Father of
Projective Geometry." Pappus also demonstrated how to perform angle trisection and
cube doubling if one can use mechanical curves like a conchoid or hyperbola. He
stated (but didn't prove) the Isoperimetric Theorem, also writing "Bees know this fact
which is useful to them, that the hexagon ... will hold more honey for the same
material than [a square or triangle]." (That a honeycomb partition minimizes material
for an equal-area partitioning was finally proved in 1999 by Thomas Hales, who also
proved the related Kepler Conjecture.) Pappus stated, but did not fully solve,
the Problem of Pappus which, given an arbitrary collection of lines in the plane, asks
for the locus of points whose distances to the lines have a certain relationship. This
problem was a major inspiration for Descartes and was finally fully solved by
Newton.

For preserving the teachings of Euclid and Apollonius, as well as his own theorems of
geometry, Pappus certainly belongs on a list of great ancient mathematicians. But
these teachings lay dormant during Europe's Dark Ages, diminishing Pappus'
historical significance.

Mathematicians after Classical Greece

Alexander the Great spread Greek culture to Egypt and much of the Orient; thus even
Hindu mathematics may owe something to the Greeks. Greece was eventually
absorbed into the Roman Empire (with Archimedes himself famously killed by a
Roman soldier). Rome did not pursue pure science as Greece had (as we've seen, the
important mathematicians of the Roman era were based in the Hellenic East) and
eventually Europe fell into a Dark Age. The Greek emphasis on pure mathematics and
proofs was key to the future of mathematics, but they were missing an even more
important catalyst: a decimal place-value system based on zero and nine other
symbols.
Decimal system -- from India? China?? Persia???

It's still hard to believe that the "obvious" and so-convenient decimal system didn't
catch on in Europe until the late Renaissance. Ancient Greeks, by the way, did not use
the unwieldy Roman numerals, but rather used 27 symbols, denoting 1 to 9, 10 to 90,
and 100 to 900. Unlike our system, with ten digits separate from the alphabet, the 27
Greek number symbols were the same as their alphabet's letters; this might have
hindered the development of "syncopated" notation. The most ancient Hindu records
did not use the ten digits of Aryabhata, but rather a system similar to that of the
ancient Greeks, suggesting that China, and not India, may indeed be the "ultimate"
source of the modern decimal system.

The Chinese used a form of decimal abacus as early as 3000 BC; if it doesn't qualify,
by itself, as a "decimal system" then pictorial depictions of its numbers would. Yet for
thousands of years after its abacus, China had no zero symbol other than plain space;
and apparently didn't have one until after the Hindus. Ancient Persians and
Mayans did have place-value notation with zero symbols, but neither qualify as
inventing a base-10 decimal system: Persia used the base-60 Babylonian system;
Mayans used base-20. (Another difference is that the Hindus had nine distinct digit
symbols to go with their zero, while earlier place-value systems built up from just two
symbols: 1 and either 5 or 10.) The Old Kingdom Egyptians did use a base-ten
system, but it was not place-value (1, 10, 100 were depicted as separate symbols).

Conclusion: The decimal place-value system with zero symbol seems to be an obvious
invention that in fact was very hard to invent. If you insist on a single winner then
India might be it. But China, Babylonia, Persia and even the Mayans deserve
Honorable Mention!

Aryabhata (476-550) Ashmaka & Kusumapura (India)

Indian mathematicians excelled for thousands of years, and eventually even developed
advanced techniques like Taylor series before Europeans did, but they are denied
credit because of Western ascendancy. Among the Hindu mathematicians, Aryabhata
(called Arjehir by Arabs) may be most famous.

While Europe was in its early "Dark Age," Aryabhata advanced arithmetic, algebra,
elementary analysis, and especially plane and spherical trigonometry, using the
decimal system. Aryabhata is sometimes called the "Father of Algebra" instead of al-
Khowrizmi (who himself cites the work of Aryabhata). His most famous
accomplishment in mathematics was the Aryabhata Algorithm(connected to continued
fractions) for solving Diophantine equations. Aryabhata made several important
discoveries in astronomy, e.g. the nature of moonlight, and concept of sidereal year;
his estimate of the Earth's circumference was more accurate than any achieved in
ancient Greece. He was among the very few ancient scholars who realized the Earth
rotated daily on an axis; claims that he also espoused heliocentric orbits are
controversial, but may be confirmed by the writings of al-Biruni. Aryabhata is said to
have introduced the constant e. He used 3.1416; it is unclear whether he
discovered this independently or borrowed it from Liu Hui of China. Although it was
first discovered by Nicomachus three centuries earlier, Aryabhata is famous for the
identity
(k3) = ( k)2

Some of Aryabhata's achievements, e.g. an excellent approximation to the sine

function, are known only from the writing of Bhaskara I, (another early Hindu
mathematician). Bhaskara I wrote: "Aryabhata is the master who, after reaching the
furthest shores and plumbing the inmost depths of the sea of ultimate knowledge of
mathematics, kinematics and spherics, handed over the three sciences to the learned
world."

Brahmagupta `Bhillamalacarya' (589-668) Rajasthan (India)

No one person gets unique credit for the invention of the decimal system but
Brahmagupta's textbook Brahmasphutasiddhanta was very influential, and is
sometimes considered the first textbook "to treat zero as a number in its own right." It
also treated negative numbers. (Others claim these were first seen 800 years earlier in
Chang Tshang's Chinese text and were implicit in what survives of earlier Hindu
works, but Brahmagupta's text discussed them lucidly.) Along with Diophantus,
Brahmagupta was also among the first to express equations with symbols rather than
words.

Brahmagupta Bhillamalacarya (`The Teacher from Bhillamala') made great advances

in arithmetic, algebra, numeric analysis, and geometry. Several theorems bear his
name, including the formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral:
16 A2 = (a+b+c-d)(a+b-c+d)(a-b+c+d)(-a+b+c+d)
Another famous Brahmagupta theorem dealing with such quadrilaterals can be
phrased "In a circle, if the chords AB and CD are perpendicular and intersect at E,
then the line from E which bisects AC will be perpendicular to BD." He also began
the study of rational quadrilaterals which Kummer would eventually complete.
Proving Brahmagupta's theorems are good challenges even today.
In addition to his famous writings on practical mathematics and his ingenious
theorems of geometry, Brahmagupta solved the general quadratic equation, and
worked on number theory problems. He was first to find a general solution to the
simplest Diophantine form. His work on Pell's equations has been called "brilliant"
and "marvelous." He proved the Brahmagupta-Fibonacci Identity (the set of sums of
two squares is closed under multiplication). He applied mathematics to astronomy,
predicting eclipses, etc.

Muhammed `Abu Jafar' ibn Mus al-Khowrizmi (ca 780-850)

Khorasan (Uzbekistan), Iraq

Al-Khowrizmi (aka Mahomet ibn Moses) was a Persian who worked as a

mathematician, astronomer and geographer early in the Golden Age of Islamic
science. He introduced the Hindu decimal system to the Islamic world and Europe;
invented the horary quadrant; improved the sundial; developed trigonometry tables;
and improved on Ptolemy's astronomy and geography. He wrote the book Al-Jabr,
which demonstrated simple algebra and geometry, and several other influential books.
Unlike Diophantus' work, which dealt in specific examples, Al-Khowrizmi was the
first algebra text to present general methods; he is often called the "Father of
Algebra." (Diophantus did, however, use superior "syncopated" notation.) The
word algorithm is borrowed from Al-Khowrizmi's name, and algebra is taken from
the name of his book. He also coined the word cipher, which became
English zero (although this was just a translation from the Sanskrit word for zero
introduced by Aryabhata). He was an essential pioneer for Islamic science, and for the
many Arab and Persian mathematicians who followed; and hence also for Europe's
eventual Renaissance which was heavily dependent on Islamic teachings. Al-
Khowrizmi's texts on algebra and decimal arithmetic are considered to be among the
most influential writings ever.

Ya'qub `Abu Yusuf' ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (803-873) Iraq

Al-Kindi (called Alkindus in the West) wrote on diverse philosophical subjects,

physics, optics, astronomy, music, psychology, medicine, chemistry, and more. He
invented pharmaceutical methods, perfumes, and distilling of alcohol. In mathematics,
he popularized the use of the decimal system, developed spherical geometry, wrote on
many other topics and was a pioneer of cryptography (code-breaking). (Al-Kindi,
called The Arab Philosopher, can not be considered among the greatest of
mathematicians, but was one of the most influential general scientists between
Aristotle and da Vinci.) He appears on Cardano's List of 12 Greatest Geniuses.

Al-Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harrani (836-901) Harran, Iraq

Thabit produced important books in philosophy (including perhaps the famous mystic
work De Imaginibus), medicine, mechanics, astronomy, and especially several
mathematical fields: analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, trigonometry, arithmetic,
number theory. As well as being an original thinker, Thabit was a key translator of
ancient Greek writings; he translated Archimedes' otherwise-lost Book of Lemmas and
applied one of its methods to construct a regular heptagon. He developed an important
new cosmology superior to Ptolemy's (and which, though it was not heliocentric, may
have inspired Copernicus). He was perhaps the first great mathematician to take the
important step of emphasizing real numbers rather than either rational numbers or
geometric sizes. He worked in plane and spherical trigonometry, and with cubic
equations. He was an earlier practitioner of calculus and seems to have been first to
take the integral of x. Like Archimedes, he was able to calculate the area of an
ellipse, and to calculate the volume of a paraboloid. He produced an elegant
generalization of the Pythagorean Theorem:
AC 2 + BC 2 = AB (AR + BS)
(Here the triangle ABC is not a right triangle, but R and S are located on AB to give
the equal angles ACB = ARC = BSC.) Thabit also worked in number theory where he
is especially famous for his theorem about amicable numbers. While many of his
discoveries in geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, and analysis (parabola
quadrature, trigonometric law, principle of lever) duplicated work by Archimedes and
Pappus, Thabit's list of novel achievements is impressive. Among the several great
and famous Baghdad geometers, Thabit may have had the greatest genius.

Ibrahim ibn Sinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra (908-946) Iraq

Ibn Sinan, grandson of Thabit ibn Qurra, was one of the greatest Islamic
mathematicians and might have surpassed the great Thabit had he not died at a young
age. He was an early pioneer of analytic geometry, advancing the theory of
integration, applying algebra to synthetic geometry, and writing on the construction of
conic sections. He produced a new proof of Archimedes' famous formula for the area
of a parabolic section. He worked on the theory of area-preserving transformations,
with applications to map-making. He also advanced astronomical theory, and wrote a
treatise on sundials.
Mohammed ibn al-Hasn (Alhazen) `Abu Ali' ibn al-Haytham al-Basra (965-1039)
Iraq, Egypt

Al-Hassan ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) made contributions to math, optics, and

astronomy which eventually influenced Roger Bacon, Regiomontanus, da Vinci,
Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Huygens, Descartes and Wallis, thus affecting Europe's
Scientific Revolution. He's been called the best scientist of the Middle Ages; his Book
of Optics has been called the most important physics text prior to Newton; his writings
in physics anticipate the Principle of Least Action, Newton's First Law of Motion, and
the notion that white light is composed of the color spectrum. (Like Newton, he
favored a particle theory of light over the wave theory of Aristotle.) His other
achievements in optics include improved lens design, an analysis of the camera
obscura, Snell's Law, an early explanation for the rainbow, a correct deduction from
refraction of atmospheric thickness, and experiments on visual perception. He also did
work in human anatomy and medicine. (In a famous leap of over-confidence he
claimed he could control the Nile River; when the Caliph ordered him to do so, he
then had to feign madness!) Alhazen has been called the "Father of Modern Optics,"
the "Founder of Experimental Psychology" (mainly for his work with optical
illusions), and, because he emphasized hypotheses and experiments, "The First
Scientist."

In number theory, Alhazen worked with perfect numbers, Mersenne primes, the
Chinese Remainder Theorem; and stated Wilson's Conjecture (sometimes called Al-
Haytham's Theorem though it was first proven by Lagrange). He introduced the
Power Series Theorem (later attributed to Jacob Bernoulli). His best mathematical
work was with plane and solid geometry, especially conic sections; he calculated the
areas of lunes, volumes of paraboloids, and constructed a heptagon using intersecting
parabolas. He solved Alhazen's Billiard Problem (originally posed as a problem in
mirror design), a difficult construction which continued to intrigue several great
mathematicians including Huygens. To solve it, Alhazen needed to anticipate
Descartes' analytic geometry, anticipate Bzout's Theorem, tackle quartic equations
and develop a rudimentary integral calculus. Alhazen's attempts to prove the Parallel
Postulate make him (along with Thabit ibn Qurra) one of the earliest mathematicians
to investigate non-Euclidean geometry.

Abu al-Rayhan Mohammed ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973-1048) Khorasan (Uzbekistan)

Al-Biruni (Alberuni) was an extremely outstanding scholar, far ahead of his time,
sometimes shown with Alkindus and Alhazen as one of the greatest Islamic
polymaths, and sometimes compared to Leonardo da Vinci. He is less famous in part
because he lived in a remote part of the Islamic empire. He was a great linguist;
studied the original works of Greeks and Hindus; is famous for debates with his
contemporary Avicenna; studied history, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, sociology,
medicine and more; is called the Father of Geodesy and the Father of Arabic
Pharmacy; and was one of the greatest astronomers. He was also noted for his poetry.
He invented (but didn't build) a geared-astrolabe clock, and worked with springs and
hydrostatics. He wrote prodigiously on all scientific topics (his writings are estimated
to total 13,000 folios); he was especially noted for his comprehensive encyclopedia
about India, and Shadows, which starts from notions about shadows but develops
much astronomy and mathematics. He applied scientific methods; and anticipated
future advances including Darwin's natural selection, Newton's Second Law, the
immutability of elements, the nature of the Milky Way, and much modern geology.
Among several novel achievements in astronomy, he used observations of lunar
eclipse to deduce relative longitude, estimated Earth's radius most accurately, believed
the Earth rotated on its axis and accepted heliocentrism as a possibility. In
mathematics, he was first to apply the Law of Sines to astronomy, geodesy, and
cartography; anticipated the notion of polar coordinates; invented the azimuthal
equidistant map projection in common use today; found trigonometric solutions to
polynomial equations; did geometric constructions including angle trisection; and
wrote on arithmetic, algebra, and combinatorics as well as plane and spherical
trigonometry and geometry. (Al-Biruni's contemporary Avicenna was not particularly
a mathematician but deserves mention as an advancing scientist, as does Avicenna's
disciple Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdada, who lived about a century later.)

Al-Biruni has left us what seems to be the oldest surviving mention of the Broken
Chord Theorem (if M is the midpoint of circular arc ABMC, and T the midpoint of
"broken chord" ABC, then MT is perpendicular to BC). Although he himself
attributed the theorem to Archimedes, Al-Biruni provided several novel proofs for,
and useful corollaries of, this famous geometric gem. While Al-Biruni may lack the
influence and mathematical brilliance to qualify for the Top 100, he deserves
recognition as one of the greatest applied mathematicians before the modern era.

Omar al-Khayym (1048-1123) Persia

Omar Khayym (aka Ghiyas od-Din Abol-Fath Omar ibn Ebrahim Khayyam
Neyshaburi) is sometimes called the greatest Islamic mathematician. He did clever
work with geometry, developing an alternate to Euclid's Parallel Postulate and then
deriving the parallel result using theorems based on the Khayyam-Saccheri
quadrilateral. He derived solutions to cubic equations using the intersection of conic
sections with circles. Remarkably, he stated that the cubic solution could not be
achieved with straightedge and compass, a fact that wouldn't be proved until the 19th
century. Khayym did even more important work in algebra, writing an influential
textbook, and developing new solutions for various higher-degree equations. He may
have been first to develop Pascal's Triangle (which is still called Khayym's Triangle
in Persia), along with the essential Binomial Theorem (Al-Khayym's Formula):
(x+y)n = n! xkyn-k / k!(n-k)!

Khayym was also an important astronomer; he measured the year far more accurately
than ever before, improved the Persian calendar, and built a famous star map. He
emphasized science over religion and proved that the Earth rotates around the Sun.
His symbol ('shay') for an unknown in an algebraic equation might have been
transliterated to become our 'x'. He also wrote treatises on philosophy, music,
mechanics and natural science. Despite his great achievements in algebra, geometry,
and astronomy, today Omar al-Khayym is most famous for his rich poetry (The
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayym).

Bhscara chrya (1114-1185) India

Bhscara (also called Bhaskara II or Bhaskaracharya) may have been the greatest of
the Hindu mathematicians. He made achievements in several fields of mathematics
including some Europe wouldn't learn until the time of Euler. His textbooks dealt with
many matters, including solid geometry, combinations, and advanced arithmetic
methods. He was also an astronomer. (It is sometimes claimed that his equations for
planetary motions anticipated the Laws of Motion discovered by Kepler and Newton,
but this claim is doubtful.) In algebra, he solved various equations including 2nd-order
Diophantine, quartic, Brouncker's and Pell's equations. His Chakravala method, an
early application of mathematical induction to solve 2nd-order equations, has been
called "the finest thing achieved in the theory of numbers before Lagrange" (although
a similar statement was made about one of Fibonacci's theorems). (Earlier Hindus,
including Brahmagupta, contributed to this method.) In several ways he anticipated
calculus: he used Rolle's Theorem; he may have been first to use the fact that dsin x
= cos x dx; and he once wrote that multiplication by 0/0 could be "useful in
astronomy." In trigonometry, which he valued for its own beauty as well as practical
applications, he developed spherical trig and was first to present the identity
sin a+b = sin a cos b + sin b cos a
Bhscara's achievements came centuries before similar discoveries in Europe. It is an
open riddle of history whether any of Bhscara's teachings trickled into Europe in
time to influence its Scientific Renaissance. (Another mathematician, Bhscara I who
lived five centuries before Bhscara II, was also outstanding. He was famous for
advancing the positional decimal number notation, for a formula giving an excellent
approximation to the sin function, and for being first to state Wilson's Conjecture.)

Leonardo `Bigollo' Pisano (Fibonacci) (ca 1170-1245) Italy

Leonardo (known today as Fibonacci) introduced the decimal system and other new
methods of arithmetic to Europe, and relayed the mathematics of the Hindus, Persians,
and Arabs. Others, especially Gherard of Cremona, had translated Islamic
mathematics, e.g. the works of al-Khowrizmi, into Latin, but Leonardo was the
influential teacher. He also re-introduced older Greek ideas like Mersenne numbers
and Diophantine equations. Leonardo's writings cover a very broad range including
new theorems of geometry, methods to construct and convert Egyptian fractions
(which were still in wide use), irrational numbers, the Chinese Remainder Theorem,
theorems about Pythagorean triplets, and the series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, .... which is
now linked with the name Fibonacci. In addition to his great historic importance and
fame (he was a favorite of Emperor Frederick II), Leonardo `Fibonacci' is called "the
greatest number theorist between Diophantus and Fermat" and "the
most talented mathematician of the Middle Ages."

Leonardo is most famous for his book Liber Abaci, but his Liber
Quadratorum provides the best demonstration of his skill. He defined congruums and
proved theorems about them, including a theorem establishing the conditions for three
square numbers to be in consecutive arithmetic series; this has been called the finest
work in number theory prior to Fermat (although a similar statement was made about
one of Bhaskara's theorems). Although often overlooked, this work includes a proof
of the n = 4 case of Fermat's Last Theorem. (Leonardo's proof of FLT4 is widely
ignored or considered incomplete. I'm preparing a page to consider that question.)
Another of Leonardo's noteworthy achievements was proving that the roots of a
certain cubic equation could not have any of the constructible forms Euclid had
outlined in Book 10 of his Elements.

Leonardo provided Europe with the decimal system, algebra and the 'lattice' method
of multiplication, all far superior to the methods then in use. He introduced notation
like 3/5; his clever extension of this for quantities like 5 yards, 2 feet, and 3 inches is
more efficient than today's notation. It seems hard to believe but before the decimal
system, mathematicians had no notation for zero. Referring to this system, Gauss was
later to exclaim "To what heights would science now be raised if Archimedes had
made that discovery!"

Some histories describe him as bringing Islamic mathematics to Europe, but in

Fibonacci's own preface to Liber Abaci, he specifically credits the Hindus:

... as a consequence of marvelous instruction in the art, to the nine digits of the
Hindus, the knowledge of the art very much appealed to me before all others, and for
it I realized that all its aspects were studied in Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily, and
Provence, with their varying methods;
... But all this even, and the algorism, as well as the art of Pythagoras, I considered as
almost a mistake in respect to the method of the Hindus. Therefore, embracing more
stringently that method of the Hindus, and taking stricter pains in its study, while
adding certain things from my own understanding and inserting also certain things
from the niceties of Euclid's geometric art, I have striven to compose this book in its
entirety as understandably as I could, ...

Had the Scientific Renaissance begun in the Islamic Empire, someone like al-
Khowrizmi would have greater historic significance than Fibonacci, but the
Renaissance did happen in Europe.Liber Abaci's summary of the decimal system has
been called "the most important sentence ever written." Even granting this to be an
exaggeration, there is no doubt that the Scientific Revolution owes a huge debt to
Leonardo `Fibonacci' Pisano.

Abu Jafar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274) Persia

Tusi was one of the greatest Islamic polymaths, working in theology, ethics, logic,
astronomy, and other fields of science. He was a famous scholar and prolific writer,
describing evolution of species, stating that the Milky Way was composed of stars,
and mentioning conservation of mass in his writings on chemistry. He made a wide
range of contributions to astronomy, and (along with Omar Khayym) was one of the
most significant astronomers between Ptolemy and Copernicus. He improved on the
Ptolemaic model of planetary orbits, and even wrote about (though rejecting) the
possibility of heliocentrism.

Tusi is most famous for his mathematics. He advanced algebra, arithmetic, geometry,
trigonometry, and even foundations, working with real numbers and lengths of curves.
For his texts and theorems, he may be called the "Father of Trigonometry;" he was
first to properly state and prove several theorems of planar and spherical trigonometry
including the Law of Sines, and the (spherical) Law of Tangents. He wrote important
commentaries on works of earlier Greek and Islamic mathematicians; he attempted to
prove Euclid's Parallel Postulate. Tusi's writings influenced European mathematicians
including Wallis; his revisions of the Ptolemaic model led him to the Tusi-couple, a
special case of trochoids usually called Copernicus' Theorem, though historians have
concluded Copernicus discovered this theorem by reading Tusi.

Qin Jiushao (1202-1261) China

There were several important Chinese mathematicians in the 13th century, of whom
Qin Jiushao (Ch'in Chiu-Shao) may have had particularly outstanding breadth and
genius. Qin's textbook discusses various algebraic procedures, includes word
problems requiring quartic or quintic equations, explains a version of Horner's
Method for finding solutions to such equations, includes Heron's Formula for a
triangle's area, and introduces the zero symbol and decimal fractions. Qin's work on
the Chinese Remainder Theorem was very impressive, finding solutions in cases
which later stumped Euler.

Other great Chinese mathematicians of that era are Li Zhi, Yang Hui (Pascal's
Triangle is still called Yang Hui's Triangle in China), and Zhu Shiejie. Their teachings
did not make their way to Europe, but were read by the Japanese mathematician Seki,
and possibly by Islamic mathematicians like Al-Kashi. Although Qin was a soldier
and governor noted for corruption, with mathematics just a hobby, I've chosen him to
represent this group because of the key advances which appear first in his writings.

Zhu Shiejie (ca 1265-1303+) China

Zhu Shiejie was more famous and influential than Qin; historian George Sarton called
him "one of the greatest mathematicians ... of all time." Zhu is especially famous for
his work with multivariate polynomials; he anticipated the Sylvester matrix method
for solving simultaneous polynomial equations.

Levi ben Gerson `Gersonides' (1288-1344?) France

Gersonides (aka Leo de Bagnols, aka RaLBaG) was a Jewish scholar of great renown,
preferring science and reason over religious orthodoxy. He wrote important
commentaries on Aristotle, Euclid, the Talmud, and the Bible; he is most famous for
his book MilHamot Adonai ("The Wars of the Lord") which touches on many
theological questions. He was likely the most talented scientist of his time: he
invented the "Jacob's Staff" which became an important navigation tool; described the
principles of the camera obscura; etc. In mathematics, Gersonides wrote texts on
trigonometry, calculation of cube roots, rules of arithmetic, etc.; and gave rigorous
derivations of rules of combinatorics. He was first to make explicit use of
mathematical induction. At that time, "harmonic numbers" referred to integers with
only 2 and 3 as prime factors; Gersonides solved a problem of music theory with an
ingenious proof that there were no consecutive harmonic numbers larger than (8,9).
Levi ben Gerson published only in Hebrew so, although some of his work was
translated into Latin during his lifetime, his influence was limited; much of his work
was re-invented three centuries later; and many histories of math overlook him
altogether.

Gersonides was also an outstanding astronomer. He proved that the fixed stars were at
a huge distance, and found other flaws in the Ptolemaic model. But he specifically
rejected heliocentrism, noteworthy since it implies that heliocentrism was under
consideration at the time.

Nicole Oresme (ca 1322-1382) France

Oresme was of lowly birth but excelled at school (where he was taught by the famous
Jean Buridan), became a young professor, and soon personal chaplain to King Charles
V. The King commissioned him to translate the works of Aristotle into French (with
Oresme thus playing key roles in the development of both French science and French
language), and rewarded him by making him a Bishop. He wrote several books; was a
renowned philosopher and natural scientist (challenging several of Aristotle's ideas);
contributed to economics (e.g. anticipating Gresham's Law) and to optics (he was first
to posit curved refraction). Although the Earth's annual orbit around the Sun was left
to Copernicus, Oresme was among the pre-Copernican thinkers to claim clearly that
the Earth spun daily on its axis.

In mathematics, Oresme observed that the integers were equinumerous with the odd
integers; was first to use fractional (and even irrational) exponents; introduced the
symbol + for addition; was first to write about general curvature; and, most famously,
first to prove the divergence of the harmonic series. Oresme used a graphical diagram
to demonstrate the Merton College Theorem (a discovery related to Galileo's Law of
Falling Bodies made by Thomas Bradwardine, et al); it is said this was the first
abstract graph. (Some believe that this effort inspired Descartes' coordinate geometry
and Galileo.) Oresme was aware of Gersonides' work on harmonic numbers and was
among those who attempted to link music theory to the ratios of celestial orbits,
writing "the heavens are like a man who sings a melody and at the same time dances,
thus making music ... in song and in action." Oresme's work was influential; with
several discoveries ahead of his time, Oresme deserves to be better known.

Madhava of Sangamagramma (1340-1425) India

Madhava, also known as Irinjaatappilly Madhavan Namboodiri, founded the

important Kerala school of mathematics and astronomy. If everything credited to him
was his own work, he was a truly great mathematician. His analytic geometry
preceded and surpassed Descartes', and included differentiation and integration.
Madhava also did work with continued fractions, trigonometry, and geometry. He has
been called the "Founder of Mathematical Analysis." Madhava is most famous for his
work with Taylor series, discovering identities like sin q = q - q3/3! + q5/5! - ... ,
formulae for , including the one attributed to Leibniz, and the then-best known
approximation 104348 / 33215.

Despite the accomplishments of the Kerala school, Madhava probably does not
deserve a place on our List. There were several other great mathematicians who
contributed to Kerala's achievements, some of which were made 150 years after
Madhava's death. More importantly, the work was not propagated outside Kerala, so
had almost no effect on the development of mathematics.

Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid Mas'ud Al-Kashi (ca 1380-1429) Iran, Transoxania (Uzbekistan)

Al-Kashi was among the greatest calculaters in the ancient world; wrote important
texts applying arithmetic and algebra to problems in astronomy, mensuration and
accounting; and developed trig tables far more accurate than earlier tables. He worked
with binomial coefficients, invented astronomical calculating machines, developed
spherical trig, and is credited with various theorems of trigonometry including the
Law of Cosines, which is sometimes called Al-Kashi's Theorem. He is sometimes
credited with the invention of decimal fractions (though he worked mainly with
sexagesimal fractions), and a method like Horner's to calculate roots. However
decimal fractions had been used earlier, e.g. by Qin Jiushao; and Al-Kashi's root
calculations may also have been derived from Chinese texts by Qin Jiushao or Zhu
Shiejie.
Using his methods, al-Kashi calculated correctly to 17 significant digits, breaking
Madhava's record. (This record was subsequently broken by relative unknowns: a
German ca. 1600, John Machin 1706. In 1949 the calculation record was held
briefly by John von Neumann and the ENIAC.)

Johannes Mller von Knigsberg `Regiomontanus' (1436-1476) Bavaria, Italy

Regiomontanus was a prodigy who entered University at age eleven, studied under the
influential Georg von Peuerbach, and eventually collaborated with him. He was an
important astronomer; he found flaws in Ptolemy's system, realized lunar observations
could be used to determine longitude, and may have believed in heliocentrism. His
ephemeris was used by Columbus, when shipwrecked on Jamaica, to predict a lunar
eclipse, thus dazzling the natives and perhaps saving his crew. More importantly,
Regiomontanus was one of the most influential mathematicians of the Middle Ages;
he published trigonometry textbooks and tables, as well as the best textbook on
arithmetic and algebra of his time. (Regiomontanus lived shortly after Gutenberg, and
founded the first scientific press.) He was a prodigious reader of Greek and Latin
translations, and most of his results were copied from Greek or Arabic works;
however he improved or reconstructed many of the proofs, and often presented
solutions in both geometric and algebraic form. His algebra was more symbolic and
general than his predecessors'; he solved cubic equations (though not the general
case); applied Chinese remainder methods, and worked in number theory. He posed
and solved a variety of clever geometric puzzles, including his famous angle
maximization problem. Regiomontanus was also an instrument maker, astrologer, and
Catholic bishop.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italy

Leonardo da Vinci is most renowned for his paintings -- Mona Lisa and The Last
Supper are among the most discussed and admired paintings ever -- but he did much
other work and was probably the most talented, versatile and prolific polymath ever to
live; his writings exceed 13,000 folios. He developed new techniques, and principles
of perspective geometry, for drawing, painting and sculpture; he was also an expert
architect and engineer; and surely the most prolific inventor of all time. Although
most of his paper designs were never built, Leonardo's inventions include reflecting
and refracting telescope, adding machine, parabolic compass, improved anemometer,
parachute, helicopter, flying ornithopter, several war machines (multi-barreled gun,
steam-driven cannon, tank, giant crossbow, finned mortar shells, portable bridge),
pumps, an accurate spring-operated clock, bobbin winder, robots, scuba gear, an
elaborate musical instrument he called the 'viola organista,' and more. (Some of his
designs, including the viola organista and a large single-span bridge, were finally built
five centuries later.) He developed the mechanical theory of the arch; made advances
in anatomy, botany, and other fields of science; he was first to conceive of plate
tectonics. He was also a poet and musician.

He had little formal training in mathematics until he was in his mid-40's, when he and
Luca Pacioli (the other great Italian mathematician of that era) began tutoring each
other. Despite this slow start, he did make novel achievements in mathematics: he was
first to note the simple classification of symmetry groups on the plane, may have
discovered a new elegant proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, achieved interesting
bisections and mensurations, and developed an approximate solution to the circle-
squaring problem. He was first to discover the 60-vertex shape now called
"buckyball." Along with Archimedes, Alberuni, Leibniz, and J. W. von Goethe,
Leonardo da Vinci was among the greatest geniuses ever; but none of these appears
on Hart's List of the Most Influential Persons in History: genius doesn't imply
influence. (However, M.I.T. prepared a list of the Twenty Most Influential Persons in
History; their list includes five missing from Hart's list: Gandhi, Leonardo,
Archimedes, Socrates and Nelson Mandela.)

Leonardo was also a writer and philosopher. Among his notable adages are
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication," and "The noblest pleasure is the joy of
understanding," and "Human ingenuity ... will never discover any inventions more
beautiful, more simple or more practical than those of nature."

Nicolaus Copernicus (1472-1543) Poland

The European Renaissance developed in 15th-century Italy, with the blossoming of

great art, and as scholars read books by great Islamic scientists like Alhazen. The
earliest of these great Italian polymaths were largely not noted for mathematics, and
Leonardo da Vinci began serious math study only very late in life, so the best
candidates for mathematical greatness in the Italian Renaissance were foreigners.
Along with Regiomontanus from Bavaria, there was an even more famous man from
Poland.

Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) was a polymath; he started by studying law

and medicine; later published poetry and contemplated astronomy, while working
professionally as a church scholar/diplomat. He studied Islamic works on astronomy
and geometry at the University of Bologna, and eventually wrote a book of great
impact. Although his only famous theorem of mathematics (that certain trochoids are
straight lines) may have been derived from Oresme's work, or copied from Nasir al-
Tusi, it was mathematical thought that led Copernicus to the conclusion that the Earth
rotates around the Sun. Despite opposition from the Roman church, this discovery led,
via Galileo, Kepler and Newton, to the Scientific Revolution. For this revolution,
Copernicus is ranked #19 on Hart's List of the Most Influential Persons in History;
however I think there are several reasons why Copernicus' importance may be
exaggerated: (1) Copernicus' system still used circles and epicycles, so it was left to
Kepler to discover the facts of elliptical orbits; (2) Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), who
built on Copernicus' discovery, was a better and more influential scientist, anticipating
some of Galileo's concepts; and (3) the Scientific Revolution didn't really get
underway until the invention of the telescope, which would have soon led to the
discovery of heliocentrism in any event.

Until the Protestant Reformation, which began about the time of Copernicus'
discovery, European scientists were reluctant to challenge the Catholic Church and its
belief in geocentrism. Copernicus' book was published only posthumously. It remains
controversial whether earlier Islamic or Hindu mathematicians (or even Archimedes
with his The Sand Reckoner) believed in heliocentrism, but were also inhibited by
religious orthodoxy.

Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) Italy

Girolamo Cardano (or Jerome Cardan) was a highly respected physician and was first
to describe typhoid fever. He was also an accomplished gambler and chess player and
wrote an early book on probability. He was also a remarkable inventor: the
combination lock, an advanced gimbal, a ciphering tool, and the Cardan shaft with
universal joints are all his inventions and are in use to this day. (The U-joint is
sometimes called the Cardan joint.) He also helped develop the camera obscura.
Cardano made contributions to physics: he noted that projectile trajectories are
parabolas, and may have been first to note the impossibility of perpetual motion
machines. He did work in philosophy, geology, hydrodynamics, music; he wrote
books on medicine and an encyclopedia of natural science.

But Cardano is most remembered for his achievements in mathematics. He was first to
publish general solutions to cubic and quartic equations, and first to publish the use of
complex numbers in calculations. (Cardano's Italian colleagues deserve much credit:
Ferrari first solved the quartic, he or Tartaglia the cubic; and Bombelli first treated the
complex numbers as numbers in their own right. Cardano may have been
the last great mathematician unwilling to deal with negative numbers: his treatment of
cubic equations had to deal with ax3 - bx + c = 0 and ax3 - bx = c as two different
cases.) Cardano introduced binomial coefficients and the Binomial Theorem, and
introduced and solved the geometric hypocyloid problem, as well as other geometric
theorems (e.g. the theorem underlying the 2:1 spur wheel which converts circular to
reciprocal rectilinear motion). Cardano is credited with Cardano's Ring Puzzle, still
manufactured today and related to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. (This puzzle may
predate Cardano, and may even have been known in ancient China.) Da Vinci and
Galileo may have been more influential than Cardano, but of the three great
generalists in the century before Kepler, it seems clear that Cardano was the most
accomplished mathematician.

Cardano's life had tragic elements. Throughout his life he was tormented that his
father (a friend of Leonardo da Vinci) married his mother only after Cardano was
born. (And his mother tried several times to abort him.) Cardano's reputation for
gambling and aggression interfered with his career. He practiced astrology and was
imprisoned for heresy when he cast a horoscope for Jesus. (This and other problems
were due in part to revenge by Tartaglia for Cardano's revealing his secret algebra
formulae.) His son apparently murdered his own wife. Leibniz wrote of Cardano:
"Cardano was a great man with all his faults; without them, he would have been
incomparable."

Rafael Bombelli (1526-1572) Italy

Bombelli was a talented engineer who wrote an algebra textbook sometimes

considered one of the foremost achievements of the 16th century. Although
incorporating work by Cardano, Diophantus and possibly Omar al-Khayym, the
textbook was highly original and extremely influential. Leibniz and Huygens were
among many who praised his work. Although noted for his new ideas of arithmetic,
Bombelli based much of his work on geometric ideas, and even pursued complex-
number arithmetic to an angle-trisection method. In his textbook he introduced new
symbolic notations, allowed negative and complex numbers, and gave the rules for
manipulating these new kinds of numbers. Bombelli is often called the Inventor of
Complex Numbers.

Franois Vite (1540-1603) France

Franois Vite (or Franciscus Vieta) was a French nobleman and lawyer who was a
favorite of King Henry IV and eventually became a royal privy councillor. In one
notable accomplishment he broke the Spanish diplomatic code, allowing the French
government to read Spain's messages and publish a secret Spanish letter; this
apparently led to the end of the Huguenot Wars of Religion.

More importantly, Vieta was certainly the best French mathematician prior to
Descartes and Fermat. He laid the groundwork for modern mathematics; his works
were the primary teaching for both Descartes and Fermat; Isaac Newton also studied
Vieta. In his role as a young tutor Vieta used decimal numbers before they were
popularized by Simon Stevin and may have guessed that planetary orbits were ellipses
before Kepler. Vieta did work in geometry, reconstructing and publishing proofs for
Apollonius' lost theorems, including all ten cases of the general Problem of
Apollonius. Vieta also used his new algebraic techniques to construct a regular
heptagon. He discovered several trigonometric identities including a generalization of
Ptolemy's Formula, the latter (then called prosthaphaeresis) providing a calculation
shortcut similar to logarithms in that multiplication is reduced to addition (or
exponentiation reduced to multiplication). Vieta also used trigonometry to find real
solutions to cubic equations for which the Italian methods had required complex-
number arithmetic; he also used trigonometry to solve a particular 45th-degree
equation that had been posed as a challenge. Such trigonometric formulae
revolutionized calculations and may even have helped stimulate the development and
use of logarithms by Napier and Kepler. He developed the first infinite-product
formula for . In addition to his geometry and trigonometry, he also found results in
number theory, but Vieta is most famous for his systematic use of decimal notation
and variable letters, for which he is sometimes called the "Father of Modern Algebra."
(Vieta used A,E,I,O,U for unknowns and consonants for parameters; it was Descartes
who first used X,Y,Z for unknowns and A,B,C for parameters.) In his works Vieta
emphasized the relationships between algebraic expressions and geometric
constructions. One key insight he had is that addends must be homogeneous (i.e.,
"apples shouldn't be added to oranges"), a seemingly trivial idea but which can aid
intuition even today.

Descartes, who once wrote "I began where Vieta finished," is now extremely famous,
while Vieta is much less known. (He isn't even mentioned once in Bell's famous Men
of Mathematics.) Many would now agree this is due in large measure to Descartes'
deliberate deprecations of competitors in his quest for personal glory. (Vieta wasn't
particularly humble either, calling himself the "French Apollonius.")

PI := 2
Y := 0
LOOP:
Y := SQRT(Y + 2)
PI := PI * 2 / Y
 IF (more precision needed) GOTO LOOP

Vieta's formula for is clumsy to express without trigonometry, even with modern
notation. Easiest may be to consider it the result of the BASIC program above. Using
this formula, Vieta constructed an approximation to that was best-yet by a
European, though not as accurate as al-Kashi's two centuries earlier.

Simon Stevin (1549-1620) Flanders, Holland

Stevin was one of the greatest practical scientists of the Late Middle Ages. He worked
with Holland's dykes and windmills; as a military engineer he developed fortifications
and systems of flooding; he invented a carriage with sails that traveled faster than with
horses and used it to entertain his patron, the Prince of Orange. He discovered several
laws of mechanics including those for energy conservation and hydrostatic pressure.
He lived slightly before Galileo who is now much more famous, but Stevin discovered
the equal rate of falling bodies before Galileo did, and correctly explained the
influence of the moon on tides (which Galileo later got wrong). He was first to write
on the concept of unstable equilibrium. He invented improved accounting methods,
and (though also invented at about the same time by Chinese mathematician Zhu
Zaiyu and anticipated by Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei) the equal-temperament
music scale. He also did work in descriptive geometry, trigonometry, optics,
geography, and astronomy.

In mathematics, Stevin is best known for the notion of real numbers (previously
integers, rationals and irrationals were treated separately; negative numbers and even
zero and one were often not considered numbers). He introduced (a clumsy form of)
decimal fractions to Europe; suggested a decimal metric system, which was finally
adopted 200 years later; invented other basic notation like the symbol . Stevin
proved several theorems about perspective geometry, an important result in
mechanics, and the Intermediate Value Theorem attributed to Bolzano and Cauchy.
Stevin's books, written in Dutch rather than Latin, were widely read and hugely
influential. He was a very key figure in the development of modern European
mathematics, and may belong on our List.

John Napier 8th of Merchistoun (1550-1617) Scotland

Napier was a Scottish Laird who was a noted theologian and thought by many to be a
magician (his nickname was Marvellous Merchiston). Today, however, he is best
known for his work with logarithms, a word he invented. (Several others, including
Archimedes, had anticipated the use of logarithms.) He published the first large table
of logarithms and also helped popularize usage of the decimal point and lattice
multiplication. He invented Napier's Bones, a crude hand calculator which could be
used for division and root extraction, as well as multiplication. He also had inventions
outside mathematics, especially several different kinds of war machine.

Napier's noted textbooks also contain an exposition of spherical trigonometry.

Although he was certainly very clever (and had novel mathematical insights not
mentioned in this summary), Napier proved no deep theorem and may not belong in
the Top 100. Nevertheless, his revolutionary methods of arithmetic had immense
historical importance; his tables were used by Johannes Kepler himself, and led to the
Scientific Revolution.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italy

Galileo discovered the laws of inertia, falling bodies (including parabolic trajectories),
and the pendulum; he also introduced the notion of relativity which Einstein later
found so fruitful. He was a great inventor: in addition to being first to conceive of the
pendulum clock, he developed a new type of pump, and the best telescope,
thermometer, hydrostatic balance, and cannon sector of his day. As a famous
astronomer, Galileo pointed out that Jupiter's Moons, which he discovered, provide a
natural clock and allow a universal time to be determined by telescope anywhere on
Earth. (This was of little use in ocean navigation since a ship's rocking prevents the
required delicate observations.) His discovery that Venus, like the Moon, had phases
was the critical fact which forced acceptance of Copernican heliocentrism. His
contributions outside physics and astronomy were also enormous: He invented the
compound microscope and made early discoveries with it. He also made very
important contributions to the early development of biology; but perhaps Galileo's
most important contribution was to postulate universal laws of mechanics, in contrast
to Aristotelian and religious notions of separate laws for heaven and earth.

Galileo is often called the "Father of Modern Science" because of his emphasis on
experimentation. He understood that results needed to be repeated and averaged (he
used mean absolute difference as his curve-fitting criterion, two centuries before
Gauss and Legendre introduced the mean squared-difference criterion). For his
experimental methods and discoveries, his laws of motion, and for (eventually)
helping to spread Copernicus' heliocentrism, Galileo may have been the most
influential scientist ever; he ranks #12 on Hart's list of the Most Influential Persons in
History. (Despite these comments, it does appear that Galileo ignored experimental
results that conflicted with his theories. For example, the Law of the Pendulum, based
on Galileo's incorrect belief that the tautochrone was the circle, conflicted with his
own observations.) Despite his extreme importance to mathematical physics, Galileo
doesn't usually appear on lists of greatest mathematicians. However, Galileo did do
work in pure mathematics; he derived certain centroids using a rudimentary calculus
before Cavalieri did; he named (and may have been first to discover) the cycloid
curve. Moreover, Galileo was one of the first to write about infinite equinumerosity
(the "Hilbert's Hotel Paradox"). Galileo once wrote "Mathematics is the language in
which God has written the universe."

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) Germany

Kepler was interested in astronomy from an early age, studied to become a Lutheran
minister, became a professor of mathematics instead, then Tycho Brahe's understudy,
and, on Brahe's death, was appointed Imperial Mathematician at the age of twenty-
nine. His observations of the planets with Brahe, along with his study of Apollonius'
1800-year old work, led to Kepler's three Laws of Planetary Motion, which in turn led
directly to Newton's Laws of Motion. Beyond his discovery of these Laws (one of the
most important achievements in all of science), Kepler is also sometimes called the
"Founder of Modern Optics." He furthered the theory of the camera obscura, and was
first to study the operation of the human eye, telescopes built from two convex lenses,
and atmospheric refraction. Kepler was first to explain tides correctly. (Galileo
dismissed this as well as Kepler's elliptical orbits, and later published his own
incorrect explanation of tides.) Kepler ranks #75 on Michael Hart's famous list of the
Most Influential Persons in History. This rank, much lower than that of Copernicus,
Galileo or Newton, seems to me to underestimate Kepler's importance, since it was
Kepler's Laws, rather than just heliocentrism, which were essential to the early
development of mathematical physics.

According to Kepler's Laws, the planets move at variable speed along ellipses. (Even
Copernicus thought the orbits could be described with only circles.) The Earth-bound
observer is himself describing such an orbit and in almost the same plane as the
planets; thus discovering the Laws would be a difficult challenge even for someone
armed with computers and modern mathematics. (The very famous Kepler Equation
relating a planet's eccentric and anomaly is just one tool Kepler needed to develop.)
Kepler understood the importance of his remarkable discovery, even if
contemporaries like Galileo did not, writing:
"I give myself up to divine ecstasy ... My book is written. It will be read either by my
contemporaries or by posterity I care not which. It may well wait a hundred years
for a reader, as God has waited 6,000 years for someone to understand His work."

Besides the trigonometric results needed to discover his Laws, Kepler made other
contributions to mathematics. He generalized Alhazen's Billiard Problem, developing
the notion of curvature. He was first to notice that the set of Platonic regular solids
was incomplete if concave solids are admitted, and first to prove that there were only
13 Archimedean solids. He proved theorems of solid geometry later discovered on the
famous palimpsest of Archimedes. He rediscovered the Fibonacci series, applied it to
botany, and noted that the ratio of Fibonacci numbers converges to the Golden Mean.
He was a key early pioneer in calculus, and embraced the concept of continuity
(which others avoided due to Zeno's paradoxes); his work was a direct inspiration for
Cavalieri and others. He developed the theory of logarithms and improved on Napier's
tables. He developed mensuration methods and anticipated Fermat's theorem (df(x)/dx
= 0 at function extrema). Kepler once had an opportunity to buy wine, which
merchants measured using a shortcut; with the famous Kepler's Wine Barrel Problem,
he used his rudimentary calculus to deduce which barrel shape would be the best
bargain.

Kepler reasoned that the structure of snowflakes was evidence for the then-novel
atomic theory of matter. He noted that the obvious packing of cannonballs gave
maximum density (this became known as Kepler's Conjecture; optimality was proved
among regular packings by Gauss, but it wasn't until 1998 that the possibility of
denser irregular packings was disproven). In addition to his physics and mathematics,
Kepler wrote a science fiction novel, and was an astrologer and mystic. He had ideas
similar to Pythagoras about numbers ruling the cosmos (writing that the purpose of
studying the world "should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has
been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of
mathematics"). Kepler's mystic beliefs even led to his own mother being imprisoned
for witchcraft.

Johannes Kepler (along with Galileo, Fermat, Huygens, Wallis, Vieta and Descartes)
is among the giants on whose shoulders Newton was proud to stand. Some historians
place him ahead of Galileo and Copernicus as the single most important contributor to
the early Scientific Revolution. Chasles includes Kepler on a list of the six responsible
for conceiving and perfecting infinitesimal calculus (the other five are Archimedes,
Cavalieri, Fermat, Leibniz and Newton). (www.keplersdiscovery.com is a wonderful
website devoted to Johannes Kepler's discoveries.)
Grard Desargues (1591-1661) France

Desargues invented projective geometry and found the relationship among conic
sections which inspired Blaise Pascal. Among several ingenious and rigorously
proven theorems are Desargues' Involution Theorem and his Theorem of Homologous
Triangles. Desargues was also a noted architect and inventor: he produced an
elaborate spiral staircase, invented an ingenious new pump based on the epicycloid,
and had the idea to use cycloid-shaped teeth in the design of gears.

Desargues' projective geometry may have been too creative for his time; Descartes
admired Desargues but was disappointed his friend didn't apply algebra to his
geometric results as Descartes did; Desargues' writing was poor; and one of his best
pupils (Blaise Pascal himself) turned away from math, so Desargues' work was largely
ignored (except by Philippe de La Hire, Desargues' other prize pupil) until Poncelet
rediscovered it almost two centuries later. (Copies of Desargues' own works surfaced
about the same time.) For this reason, Desargues may not be important enough to
belong in the Top 100, despite that he may have been among the greatest natural
geometers ever.

Ren Descartes (1596-1650) France

Descartes' early career was that of soldier-adventurer and he finished as tutor to
royalty, but in between he achieved fame as the preeminent intellectual of his day. He
is considered the inventor of both analytic geometry and symbolic algebraic notation
and is therefore called the "Father of Modern Mathematics." His use of equations to
partially solve the geometric Problem of Pappus revolutionized mathematics. Because
of his famous philosophical writings ("Cogito ergo sum") he is considered, along with
Aristotle, to be one of the most influential thinkers in history. He ranks #49 on
Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His famous
mathematical theorems include the Rule of Signs (for determining the signs of
polynomial roots), the elegant formula relating the radii of Soddy kissing circles, his
theorem on total angular defect (an early form of the Gauss-Bonnet result so key to
much mathematics), and an improved solution to the Delian problem (cube-doubling).
He improved mathematical notation (e.g. the use of superscripts to denote exponents).
He also discovered Euler's Polyhedral Theorem, F+V = E+2. Descartes was very
influential in physics and biology as well, e.g. developing laws of motion which
included a "vortex" theory of gravitation; but most of his scientific work outside
mathematics was eventually found to be incorrect.
Descartes has an extremely high reputation and would be ranked even higher by many
list makers, but whatever his historical importance his mathematical skill was not in
the top rank. Some of his work was borrowed from others, e.g. from Thomas Harriot.
He had only insulting things to say about Pascal and Fermat, each of whom was much
more brilliant at mathematics than Descartes. (Some even suspect that Descartes
arranged the destruction of Pascal's lost Essay on Conics.) And Descartes made
numerous errors in his development of physics, perhaps even delaying science, with
Huygens writing "in all of [Descartes'] physics, I find almost nothing to which I can
subscribe as being correct." Even the historical importance of his mathematics may be
somewhat exaggerated since others, e.g. Fermat, Wallis and Cavalieri, were making
similar discoveries independently.

Francesco Bonaventura de Cavalieri (1598-1647) Italy

Cavalieri worked in analysis, geometry and trigonometry (e.g. discovering a formula

for the area of a spherical triangle), but is most famous for publishing works on his
"principle of indivisibles" (calculus); these were very influential and inspired further
development by Huygens, Wallis and Barrow. (His calculus was partly anticipated by
Galileo, Kepler and Luca Valerio, and developed independently, though left
unpublished, by Fermat.) Among his theorems in this calculus was
lim (n) (1m+2m+ ... +nm) / nm+1 = 1 / (m+1)
Cavalieri also worked in theology, astronomy, mechanics and optics; he was an
inventor, and published logarithm tables. He wrote several books, the first one
developing the properties of mirrors shaped as conic sections. His name is especially
remembered for Cavalieri's Principle of Solid Geometry. Galileo said of Cavalieri,
"Few, if any, since Archimedes, have delved as far and as deep into the science of
geometry."

Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) France

Pierre de Fermat was the most brilliant mathematician of his era and, along with
Descartes, one of the most influential. Although mathematics was just his hobby
(Fermat was a government lawyer), Fermat practically founded Number Theory, and
also played key roles in the discoveries of Analytic Geometry and Calculus. Lagrange
considered Fermat, rather than Newton or Leibniz, to be the inventor of calculus.
Fermat was first to study certain interesting curves, e.g. the "Witch of Agnesi". He was
also an excellent geometer (e.g. discovering a triangle's Fermat point), and (in
collaboration with Blaise Pascal) discovered probability theory. Fellow geniuses are
the best judges of genius, and Blaise Pascal had this to say of Fermat: "For my part, I
confess that [Fermat's researches about numbers] are far beyond me, and I am
competent only to admire them." E.T. Bell wrote "it can be argued that Fermat was at
least Newton's equal as a pure mathematician."

Fermat's most famous discoveries in number theory include the ubiquitously-

used Fermat's Little Theorem; the n = 4 case of his conjectured Fermat's Last
Theorem (he may have proved the n = 3 case as well); and Fermat's Christmas
Theorem (that any prime (4n+1) can be represented as the sum of two squares in
exactly one way) which may be considered the most difficult theorem of arithmetic
which had been proved up to that date. Fermat proved the Christmas Theorem with
difficulty using "infinite descent," but details are unrecorded, so the theorem is often
named the Fermat-Euler Prime Number Theorem, with the first published proof being
by Euler more than a century after Fermat's claim. Another famous conjecture by
Fermat is that every natural number is the sum of three triangle numbers, or more
generally the sum of k k-gonal numbers. As with his "Last Theorem" he claimed to
have a proof but didn't write it up. (This theorem was eventually proved by Lagrange
for k=4, the very young Gauss for k=3, and Cauchy for general k. Diophantus claimed
the k=4 case but any proof has been lost.) I think Fermat's conjectures were
impressive even if unproven, and that this great mathematician is often underrated.
(Recall that his so-called "Last Theorem" was actually just a private scribble.)

Fermat developed a system of analytic geometry which both preceded and surpassed
that of Descartes; he developed methods of differential and integral calculus which
Newton acknowledged as an inspiration. Solving df(x)/dx = 0 to find extrema
of f(x) is perhaps the most useful idea in applied mathematics; this technique
originated with Fermat. Fermat was also the first European to find the integration
formula for the general polynomial; he used his calculus to find centers of gravity, etc.

Fermat's contemporaneous rival Ren Descartes is more famous than Fermat, and
Descartes' writings were more influential. Whatever one thinks of Descartes as
a philosopher, however, it seems clear that Fermat was the better mathematician.
Fermat and Descartes did work in physics and independently discovered the
(trigonometric) law of refraction, but Fermat gave the correct explanation, and used it
remarkably to anticipate the Principle of Least Action later enunciated by Maupertuis
(though Maupertuis himself, like Descartes, had an incorrect explanation of
refraction). Fermat and Descartes independently discovered analytic geometry, but it
was Fermat who extended it to more than two dimensions, and followed up by
developing elementary calculus.
Gilles Personne de Roberval (1602-1675) France

Roberval was an eccentric genius, underappreciated because most of his work was
published only long after his death. He did early work in integration, following
Archimedes rather than Cavalieri; he worked on analytic geometry independently of
Descartes. With his analysis he was able to solve several difficult geometric problems
involving curved lines and solids, including results about the cycloid which were also
credited to Pascal and Torricelli. Some of these methods, published posthumously, led
to him being called the Founder of Kinematic Geometry. He excelled at mechanics,
worked in cartography, helped Pascal with vacuum experiments, and invented the
Roberval balance, still in use in weighing scales to this day. He opposed Huygens in
the early debate about gravitation, though neither fully anticipated Newton's solution.

Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) Italy

Torricelli was a disciple of Galileo (and succeeded him as grand-ducal mathematician

of Tuscany). He was first to understand that a barometer measures atmospheric
weight, and used this insight to invent the mercury barometer and to create a sustained
vacuum (then thought impossible). He was a skilled craftsman who built the best
telescopes and microscopes of his day. As mathematical physicist, he extended
Galileo's results, was first to explain winds correctly, and discovered several key
principles including Torricelli's Law (water drains through a small hole with rate
proportional to the square root of water depth). In mathematics, he applied Cavalieri's
methods to solve difficult mensuration problems; he also wrote on possible pitfalls in
applying the new calculus. He discovered Gabriel's Horn with infinite surface area
but finite volume; this "paradoxical" result provoked much discussion at the time. He
also solved a problem due to Fermat by locating the isogonic center of a triangle.
Torricelli was a significant influence on the early scientific revolution; had he lived
longer, or published more, he would surely have become one of the greatest
mathematicians of his era.

John Brehaut Wallis (1616-1703) England

Wallis began his life as a savant at arithmetic (it is said he once calculated the square
root of a 53-digit number to help him sleep and remembered the result in the
morning), a medical student (he may have contributed to the concept of blood
circulation), and theologian, but went on to become perhaps the most brilliant and
influential English mathematician before Newton. He made major advances in
analytic geometry, but also contributions to algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
Unlike his contemporary, Huygens who took inspiration from Euclid's rigorous
geometry, Wallis embraced the new analytic methods of Descartes and Fermat. He is
especially famous for using negative and fractional exponents (though Oresme had
introduced fractional exponents three centuries earlier), taking the areas of curves, and
treating inelastic collisions (he and Huygens were first to develop the law of
momentum conservation). He was the first European to solve Pell's Equation. Like
Vieta, Wallis was a code-breaker, helping the Commonwealth side (though he later
petitioned against the beheading of King Charles I). He was the first great
mathematician to consider complex numbers legitimate; and first to use the symbol .
Wallis coined several terms including continued
fraction, induction, interpolation, mantissa, and hypergeometric series.

Also like Vieta, Wallis created an infinite product formula for pi, which might be (but
isn't) written today as:
= 2 k=1, 1+(4k2-1)-1

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) France

Pascal was an outstanding genius who studied geometry as a child. At the age of
sixteen he stated and proved Pascal's Theorem, a fact relating any six points on any
conic section. The Theorem is sometimes called the "Cat's Cradle" or the "Mystic
Hexagram." Pascal followed up this result by showing that each of Apollonius'
famous theorems about conic sections was a corollary of the Mystic Hexagram; along
with Grard Desargues (1591-1661), he was a key pioneer of projective geometry. He
also made important early contributions to calculus; indeed it was his writings that
inspired Leibniz. Returning to geometry late in life, Pascal advanced the theory of the
cycloid. In addition to his work in geometry and calculus, he founded probability
theory, and made contributions to axiomatic theory. His name is associated with the
Pascal's Triangle of combinatorics and Pascal's Wager in theology.

Like most of the greatest mathematicians, Pascal was interested in physics and
mechanics, studying fluids, explaining vacuum, and inventing the syringe and
hydraulic press. At the age of eighteen he designed and built the world's first
automatic adding machine. (Although he continued to refine this invention, it was
never a commercial success.) He suffered poor health throughout his life, abandoned
mathematics for religion at about age 23, wrote the philosophical
treatise Penses ("We arrive at truth, not by reason only, but also by the heart"), and
died at an early age. Many think that had he devoted more years to mathematics,
Pascal would have been one of the greatest mathematicians ever.
Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) Holland, France

Christiaan Huygens (or Hugens, Huyghens) was second only to Newton as the
greatest mechanist of his era. Although an excellent mathematician, he is much more
famous for his physical theories and inventions. He developed laws of motion before
Newton, including the inverse-square law of gravitation, centripetal force, and
treatment of solid bodies rather than point approximations; he (and Wallis) were first
to state the law of momentum conservation correctly. He advanced the wave
("undulatory") theory of light, a key concept being Huygen's Principle, that each point
on a wave front acts as a new source of radiation. His optical discoveries include
explanations for polarization and phenomena like haloes. (Because of Newton's high
reputation and corpuscular theory of light, Huygens' superior wave theory was largely
ignored until the 19th-century work of Young, Fresnel, and Maxwell. Later, Planck,
Einstein and Bohr, partly anticipated by Hamilton, developed the modern notion of
wave-particle duality.)

Huygens is famous for his inventions of clocks and lenses. He invented the
escapement and other mechanisms, leading to the first reliable pendulum clock; he
built the first balance spring watch, which he presented to his patron, King Louis XIV
of France. He invented superior lens grinding techniques, the achromatic eye-piece,
and the best telescope of his day. He was himself a famous astronomer: he discovered
Titan and was first to properly describe Saturn's rings and the Orion Nebula. He also
designed, but never built, an internal combustion engine. He promoted the use of 31-
tone music: a 31-tone organ was in use in Holland as late as the 20th century.
Huygens was an excellent card player, billiard player, horse rider, and wrote a book
speculating about extra-terrestrial life.

As a mathematician, Huygens did brilliant work in analysis; his calculus, along with
that of Wallis, is considered the best prior to Newton and Leibniz. He also did brilliant
work in geometry, proving theorems about conic sections, the cycloid and the
catenary. He was first to show that the cycloid solves the tautochrone problem; he
used this fact to design pendulum clocks that would be more accurate than ordinary
pendulum clocks. He was first to find the flaw in Saint-Vincent's then-famous circle-
squaring method; Huygens himself solved some related quadrature problems. He
introduced the concepts of evolute and involute. His friendships with Descartes,
Pascal, Mersenne and others helped inspire his mathematics; Huygens in turn was
inspirational to the next generation. At Pascal's urging, Huygens published the first
real textbook on probability theory; he also became the first practicing actuary.
Huygens had tremendous creativity, historical importance, and depth and breadth of
genius, both in physics and mathematics. He also was important for serving as tutor to
the otherwise self-taught Gottfried Leibniz (who'd "wasted his youth" without
learning any math). Before agreeing to tutor him, Huygens tested the 25-year old
Leibniz by asking him to sum the reciprocals of the triangle numbers.

Takakazu Seki (Kowa) (ca 1637-1708) Japan

Seki Takakazu (aka Shinsuke) was a self-taught prodigy who developed a new
notation for algebra, and made several discoveries before Western mathematicians
did; these include determinants, the Newton-Raphson method, Newton's interpolation
formula, Bernoulli numbers, discriminants, methods of calculus, and probably much
that has been forgotten (Japanese schools practiced secrecy). He calculated to ten
decimal places using Aitkin's method (rediscovered in the 20th century). He also
worked with magic squares. He is remembered as a brilliant genius and very
influential teacher.

Seki's work was not propagated to Europe, so has minimal historic importance;
otherwise Seki might rank high on our list.

James Gregory (1638-1675) Scotland

James Gregory (Gregorie) was the outstanding Scottish genius of his century. Had he
not died at the age of 36, or if he had published more of his work, (or if Newton had
never lived,) Gregory would surely be appreciated as one of the greatest
mathematicians of the early Age of Science. Inspired by Kepler's work, he worked in
mechanics and optics; invented a reflecting telescope; and is even credited with using
a bird feather as the first diffraction grating. But James Gregory is most famous for his
mathematics, making many of the same discoveries as Newton did: the Fundamental
Theorem of Calculus, interpolation method, and binomial theorem. He developed the
concept of Taylor's series and used it to solve a famous semicircle division problem
posed by Kepler and to develop trigonometric identities, including
tan-1x = x - x3/3 + x5/5 - x7/7 + ... (for |x| < 1)
Gregory anticipated Cauchy's convergence test, Newton's identities for the powers of
roots, and Riemann integration. He may have been first to suspect that quintics
generally lacked algebraic solutions, as well as that and e were transcendental. He
produced a partial proof that the ancient "Squaring the Circle" problem was
impossible.
Gregory declined to publish much of his work, partly in deference to Isaac Newton
who was making many of the same discoveries. Because the wide range of his
mathematics wasn't appreciated until long after his death, Gregory lacks the historic
importance to qualify for the Top 100.

Isaac (Sir) Newton (1642-1727) England

Newton was an industrious lad who built marvelous toys (e.g. a model windmill
powered by a mouse on treadmill). At about age 22, on leave from University, this
genius began revolutionary advances in mathematics, optics, dynamics,
thermodynamics, acoustics and celestial mechanics. He is famous for his Three Laws
of Motion (inertia, force, reciprocal action) but, as Newton himself acknowledged,
these Laws weren't fully novel: Hipparchus, Ibn al-Haytham, Descartes, Galileo and
Huygens had all developed much basic mechanics already. However Newton was
apparently the first person to conclude that the ordinary gravity we observe on Earth is
the very same force that keeps the planets in orbit. His Law of Universal Gravitation
was revolutionary and due to Newton alone. (Christiaan Huygens, the other great
mechanist of the era, had independently deduced that Kepler's laws imply inverse-
square gravitation, but he considered the action at a distance in Newton's theory to be
"absurd.") Newton published the Cooling Law of thermodynamics. He also made
contributions to chemistry, and was the important early advocate of the atomic theory.
His writings also made important contributions to the general scientific method. (His
other intellectual interests included theology, astrology and alchemy.) Although this
list is concerned only with mathematics, Newton's greatness is indicated by the huge
range of his physics: even without his Laws of Motion, Gravitation and Cooling, he'd
be famous just for his revolutionary work in optics, where he explained diffraction,
observed that white light is a mixture of all the rainbow's colors, noted that purple is
created by combining red and blue light and, starting from that observation, was first
to conceive of a color hue "wheel." Newton almost anticipated Einstein's mass-energy
equivalence, writing "Gross Bodies and Light are convertible into one another...
[Nature] seems delighted with Transmutations." Newton's earliest fame came when he
designed the first reflecting telescope: by avoiding chromatic aberration, these were
the best telescopes of that era. He also designed the first reflecting microscope, and
the sextant.

Although others also developed the techniques independently, Newton is regarded as

the "Father of Calculus" (which he called "fluxions"); he shares credit with Leibniz
for the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus (that integration and differentiation are
each other's inverse operation). He applied calculus for several purposes: finding
areas, tangents, the lengths of curves and the maxima and minima of functions.
Although Descartes is renowned as the inventor of analytic geometry, he and
followers like Wallis were reluctant even to use negative coordinates, so one historian
declares Newton to be "the first to work boldly with algebraic equations." In addition
to several other important advances in analytic geometry, his mathematical works
include the Binomial Theorem, his eponymous interpolation method, the idea of polar
coordinates, and power series for exponential and trigonometric functions. (His
equation ex = xk / k! has been called the "most important series in mathematics.")
He contributed to algebra and the theory of equations; he was first to state Bzout's
Theorem; he generalized Descartes' rule of signs. (The generalized rule of signs was
incomplete and finally resolved two centuries later by Sturm and Sylvester.) He
developed a series for the arcsin function. He developed facts about cubic equations
(just as the "shadows of a cone" yield all quadratic curves, Newton found a curve
whose "shadows" yield all cubic curves). He proved, using a purely geometric
argument of awesome ingenuity, that same-mass spheres (or hollowed spheres) of any
radius have equal gravitational attraction: this fact is key to celestial motions. (He also
proved that objects inside a hollowed sphere experience zero net attraction.) He
discovered Puiseux series almost two centuries before they were re-invented by
Puiseux. (Like some of the greatest ancient mathematicians, Newton took the time to
compute an approximation to ; his was better than Vieta's, though still not as
accurate as al-Kashi's.)

Newton is so famous for his calculus, optics, and laws of gravitation and motion, it is
easy to overlook that he was also one of the very greatest geometers. He was first to
fully solve the famous Problem of Pappus, and did so with pure geometry. Building
on the "neusis" (non-Platonic) constructions of Archimedes and Pappus, he
demonstrated cube-doubling and that angles could be k-sected for any k, if one is
allowed a conchoid or certain other mechanical curves. He also built on Apollonius'
famous theorem about tangent circles to develop the technique now called hyperbolic
trilateration. Despite the power of Descartes' analytic geometry, Newton's
achievements with synthetic geometry were surpassing. Even before the invention of
the calculus of variations, Newton was doing difficult work in that field, e.g. his
calculation of the "optimal bullet shape." His other marvelous geometric theorems
included several about quadrilaterals and their in- or circum-scribing ellipses. He
constructed the parabola defined by four given points, as well as various cubic curve
constructions. (As with Archimedes, many of Newton's constructions used non-
Platonic tools.) He anticipated Poncelet's Principle of Continuity. An anecdote often
cited to demonstrate his brilliance is the problem of the brachistochrone, which had
baffled the best mathematicians in Europe, and came to Newton's attention late in life.
He solved it in a few hours and published the answer anonymously. But on seeing the
solution Jacob Bernoulli immediately exclaimed "I recognize the lion by his
footprint."

In 1687 Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, surely the

greatest scientific book ever written. The motion of the planets was not understood
before Newton, although the heliocentric system allowed Kepler to describe the
orbits. In Principia Newton analyzed the consequences of his Laws of Motion and
introduced the Law of Universal Gravitation. With the key mystery of celestial
motions finally resolved, the Great Scientific Revolution began. (In his work Newton
also proved important theorems about inverse-cube forces, work largely unappreciated
until Chandrasekhar's modern-day work.) Newton once wrote "Truth is ever to be
found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things." Sir Isaac
Newton was buried at Westminster Abbey in a tomb inscribed "Let mortals rejoice
that so great an ornament to the human race has existed."

Newton ranks #2 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in
History. (Muhammed the Prophet of Allah is #1.) Whatever the criteria, Newton
would certainly rank first or second on any list of physicists, or scientists in general,
but some listmakers would demote him slightly on a list of pure mathematicians: his
emphasis was physics not mathematics, and the contribution of Leibniz (Newton's
rival for the title Inventor of Calculus) lessens the historical importance of Newton's
calculus. One reason I've ranked him at #1 is a comment by Gottfried Leibniz himself:
"Taking mathematics from the beginning of the world to the time when Newton lived,
what he has done is much the better part."

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716) Germany

Leibniz was one of the most brilliant and prolific intellectuals ever; and his influence
in mathematics (especially his co-invention of the infinitesimal calculus) was
immense. His childhood IQ has been estimated as second-highest in all of history,
behind only Goethe's. Descriptions which have been applied to Leibniz include "one
of the two greatest universal geniuses" (da Vinci was the other); "the most important
logician between Aristotle and Boole;" and the "Father of Applied Science." Leibniz
described himself as "the most teachable of mortals."

Mathematics was just a self-taught sideline for Leibniz, who was a philosopher,
lawyer, historian, diplomat and renowned inventor. Because he "wasted his youth"
before learning mathematics, he probably ranked behind the Bernoullis as well as
Newton in pure mathematical talent, and thus he may be the only mathematician
among the Top Fifteen who was never the greatest living algorist or theorem prover. I
won't try to summarize Leibniz' contributions to philosophy and diverse other fields
including biology; as just three examples: he predicted the Earth's molten core,
introduced the notion of subconscious mind, and built the first calculator that could do
multiplication. Leibniz also had political influence: he consulted to both the Holy
Roman and Russian Emperors; another of his patrons was Sophia Wittelsbach
(Electress of Hanover), who was only distantly in line for the British throne, but was
made Heir Presumptive. (Sophia died before Queen Anne, but her son was crowned
King George I of England.)

Leibniz pioneered the common discourse of mathematics, including its continuous,

discrete, and symbolic aspects. (His ideas on symbolic logic weren't pursued and it
was left to Boole to reinvent this almost two centuries later.) Mathematical
innovations attributed to Leibniz include the notations f(x)dx, df(x)/dx, x, and even
the use of ab (instead of a X b) for multiplication; the concepts of matrix determinant
and Gaussian elimination; the theory of geometric envelopes; and the binary number
system. He worked in number theory, discovering Wilson's Conjecture before Wilson
did (though after Alhazen). He invented more mathematical terms than anyone,
including function, analysis situ, variable, abscissa, parameter and coordinate. He
also coined the word transcendental, proving that sin() was not an algebraic function.
His works seem to anticipate cybernetics and information theory; and Mandelbrot
acknowledged Leibniz' anticipation of self-similarity. Like Newton, Leibniz
discovered The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus; his contribution to calculus was
much more influential than Newton's, and his superior notation is used to this day. As
Leibniz himself pointed out, since the concept of mathematical analysis was already
known to ancient Greeks, the revolutionary invention was the notation ("calculus"),
because with "symbols [which] express the exact nature of a thing briefly ... the labor
of thought is wonderfully diminished."

Leibniz' thoughts on mathematical physics had some influence. He was one of the
first to articulate the law of energy conservation; and developed laws of motion that
gave different insights from those of Newton. His cosmology was opposed to that of
Newton but, anticipating theories of Mach and Einstein, is more in accord with
modern physics. Mathematical physicists influenced by Leibniz include not only
Mach, but perhaps Hamilton and Poincar themselves.

Although others found it independently (including perhaps Madhava three centuries

earlier), Leibniz discovered and proved a striking identity for :
/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - ...
Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) Switzerland

Jacob Bernoulli studied the works of Wallis and Barrow; he and Leibniz became
friends and tutored each other. Jacob developed important methods for integral and
differential equations, coining the word integral. He and his brother were the key
pioneers in mathematics during the generations between the era of Newton-Leibniz
and the rise of Leonhard Euler.

Jacob liked to pose and solve physical optimization problems. His "catenary" problem
(what shape does a clothesline take?) became more famous than the "tautochrone"
solved by Huygens. Perhaps the most famous of such problems was the
brachistochrone, wherein Jacob recognized Newton's "lion's paw", and about which
Johann Bernoulli wrote: "You will be petrified with astonishment [that] this same
cycloid, the tautochrone of Huygens, is the brachistochrone we are seeking." Jacob
did significant work outside calculus; in fact his most famous work was the Art of
Conjecture, a textbook on probability and combinatorics which proves the Law of
Large Numbers, the Power Series Equation, and introduces the Bernoulli numbers. He
is credited with the invention of polar coordinates (though Newton and Alberuni had
also discovered them). Jacob also did outstanding work in geometry, for example
constructing perpendicular lines which quadrisect a triangle.

Johann Bernoulli (1667-1748) Switzerland

Johann Bernoulli learned from his older brother and Leibniz, and went on to become
principal teacher to Leonhard Euler. He developed exponential calculus; together with
his brother Jacob, he founded the calculus of variations. Johann solved the catenary
before Jacob did; this led to a famous rivalry in the Bernoulli family. (No joint papers
were written; instead the Bernoullis, especially Johann, began claiming each others'
work.) Although his older brother may have demonstrated greater breadth, Johann had
no less skill than Jacob, contributed more to calculus, discovered L'Hpital's Rule
before L'Hpital did, and made important contributions in physics, e.g. about
vibrations, elastic bodies, optics, tides, and ship sails.

It may not be clear which Bernoulli was the "greatest." Johann has special importance
as tutor to Leonhard Euler, but Jacob has special importance as tutor to his brother
Johann. Johann's son Daniel is also a candidate for greatest Bernoulli.

Abraham De Moivre (1667-1754) France, England

De Moivre was an important pioneer of analytic geometry and, especially, probability
theory. (He and Laplace may be regarded as the two most important early developers
of probability theory.) In probability theory he developed actuarial science, posed
interesting problems (e.g. about derangements) and discovered the normal
distribution. He was first to discover a closed-form formula for the Fibonacci
numbers; and he developed an early version of Stirling's approximation to n!. He
discovered De Moivre's Theorem: (cos x + i sin x)n = cos nx + i cos nx

He was a close friend and muse of Isaac Newton who told people who asked
about Principia: "Go to Mr. De Moivre; he knows these things better than I do."

Brook Taylor (1685-1731) England

Brook Taylor invented integration by parts, developed what is now called the calculus
of finite differences, developed a new method to compute logarithms, made several
other key discoveries of analysis, and did significant work in mathematical physics.
His love of music and painting may have motivated some of his mathematics: He
studied vibrating strings; and also wrote an important treatise on perspective in
drawing which helped develop the fields of both projective and descriptive geometry.
His work in projective geometry rediscovered Desargues' Theorem, introduced terms
like vanishing point, and influenced Lambert.

Taylor was one of the few mathematicians of the Bernoulli era who was equal to them
in genius, but his work was much less influential. Today he is most remembered for
Taylor Series and the associated Taylor's Theorem, but he shouldn't get full credit for
this. The method had been anticipated by earlier mathematicians including Gregory,
Leibniz, Newton, and, even earlier, Madhava; and was not fully appreciated until the
work of Maclaurin and Lagrange.

Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746) Scotland

Maclaurin received a University degree in divinity at age 14, with a treatise on

gravitation. He became one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his era. He wrote
extensively on Newton's method of fluxions, and the theory of equations, advancing
these fields; worked in optics, and other areas of mathematical physics; but is most
noted for his work in geometry. Lagrange said Maclaurin's geometry was as beautiful
and ingenious as anything by Archimedes. Clairaut, seeing Maclaurin's methods,
decided that he too would prove theorems with geometry rather than analysis.
Maclaurin did important work on ellipsoids; for his work on tides he shared the Paris
Prize with Euler and Daniel Bernoulli. As Scotland's top genius, he was called upon
for practical work, including politics. Although Maclaurin's work was quite
influential, his influence didn't really match his outstanding brilliance: he failed to
adopt Leibnizian calculus with which great progress was being made on the
Continent, and much of his best work was published posthumously. Many of his
famous results duplicated work by others: Maclaurin's Series was just a form of
Taylor's series; the Euler-Maclaurin Summation Formula was also discovered by
Euler; and he discovered the Newton-Cotes Integration Formula after Cotes did. His
brilliant results in geometry included the construction of a conic from five points, but
Braikenridge made the same discovery and published before Maclaurin did. He
discovered the Maclaurin-Cauchy Test for Integral Convergence before Cauchy did.
He was first to discover Cramer's Paradox, as Cramer himself acknowledged. Colin
Maclaurin found a simpler and more powerful proof of the fact that the cycloid solves
the famous brachistochrone problem.

Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) Switzerland

Johann Bernoulli had a nephew, three sons and some grandsons who were all also
outstanding mathematicians. Of these, the most important was his son Daniel. Johann
insisted that Daniel study biology and medicine rather than mathematics, so Daniel
specialized initially in mathematical biology. He went on to win the Grand Prize of
the Paris Academy no less than ten times, and was a close friend of Euler. He
developed partial differential equations, preceded Fourier in the use of Fourier series,
did important work in statistics and the theory of equations, discovered and proved a
key theorem about trochoids, developed a theory of economic risk (motivated by the
St. Petersburg Paradox discovered by his cousin Nicholas), but is most famous for his
key discoveries in mathematical physics, including the Bernoulli Principle underlying
airflight. Daniel Bernoulli is sometimes called the "Founder of Mathematical
Physics."

Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) Switzerland

Euler may be the most influential mathematician who ever lived (though some would
make him second to Euclid); he ranks #77 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most
Influential Persons in History. His colleagues called him "Analysis Incarnate."
Laplace, famous for denying credit to fellow mathematicians, once said "Read Euler:
he is our master in everything." His notations and methods in many areas are in use to
this day. Euler was the most prolific mathematician in history and is often judged to
be the best algorist of all time. (This brief summary can only touch on a few
highlights of Euler's work. The ranking #4 may seem too low for this supreme
mathematician, but Gauss succeeded at proving several theorems which had stumped
Euler.)

Just as Archimedes extended Euclid's geometry to marvelous heights, so Euler took

marvelous advantage of the analysis of Newton and Leibniz. He also gave the world
modern trigonometry; pioneered (along with Lagrange) the calculus of variations;
generalized and proved the Newton-Giraud formulae; and made important
contributions to algebra, e.g. his study of hypergeometric series. He was also supreme
at discrete mathematics, inventing graph theory. He also invented the concept of
generating functions; for example, letting p(n) denote the number of partitions of n,
Euler found the lovely equation: n p(n) xn = 1 / k (1 - xk)
The denominator of the right side here expands to a series whose exponents all have
the (3m2+m)/2 "pentagonal number" form; Euler found an ingenious proof of this.

Euler was a very major figure in number theory: He proved that the sum of the
reciprocals of primes less than x is approx. (ln ln x), invented the totient function and
used it to generalize Fermat's Little Theorem, found both the largest then-known
prime and the largest then-known perfect number, proved e to be irrational,
discovered (though without complete proof) a broad class of transcendental numbers,
proved that all even perfect numbers must have the Mersenne number form that
Euclid had discovered 2000 years earlier, and much more. Euler was also first to
prove several interesting theorems of geometry, including facts about the 9-point
Feuerbach circle; relationships among a triangle's altitudes, medians, and
circumscribing and inscribing circles; the famous Intersecting Chords Theorem; and
an expression for a tetrahedron's volume in terms of its edge lengths. Euler was first to
explore topology, proving theorems about the Euler characteristic, and the famous
Euler's Polyhedral Theorem, F+V = E+2 (although it may have been discovered by
Descartes and first proved rigorously by Jordan). Although noted as the first great
"pure mathematician," Euler's pump and turbine equations revolutionized the design
of pumps; he also made important contributions to music theory, acoustics, optics,
celestial motions, fluid dynamics, and mechanics. He extended Newton's Laws of
Motion to rotating rigid bodies; and developed the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation. On
a lighter note, Euler constructed a particularly "magical" magic square.

Euler combined his brilliance with phenomenal concentration. He developed the first
method to estimate the Moon's orbit (the three-body problem which had stumped
Newton), and he settled an arithmetic dispute involving 50 terms in a long convergent
series. Both these feats were accomplished when he was totally blind. (About this he
said "Now I will have less distraction.") Franois Arago said that "Euler calculated
without apparent effort, as men breathe, or as eagles sustain themselves in the wind."

Four of the most important constant symbols in mathematics (, e, i = -1, and =

0.57721566...) were all introduced or popularized by Euler, along with operators
like . He did important work with Riemann's zeta function (s) = k-s (although it
was not then known by that name); he anticipated the concept of analytic continuation
by showing (-1) = 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12. As a young student of the Bernoulli family,
Euler discovered the striking identity (2) = 2/6 This catapulted Euler to instant
fame, since the left-side infinite sum (1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + 1/16 + ...) was a famous
problem of the time. Among many other famous and important identities, Euler
proved the Pentagonal Number Theorem alluded to above (a beautiful result which
has inspired a variety of discoveries), and the Euler Product Formula (s) = (1-p-
s -1
) where the right-side product is taken over all primes p. His most famous identity
(which Richard Feynman called an "almost astounding ... jewel") unifies the
trigonometric and exponential functions:
ei x = cos x + i sin x. (It is almost wondrous how the particular instance ei +1 =
0 combines the most important constants and operators together.)

Some of Euler's greatest formulae can be combined into curious-looking formulae

for : 2 = - log2(-1) = 6 pPrime(1-p-2)-1/2

Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713-1765) France

The reputations of Euler and the Bernoullis are so high that it is easy to overlook that
others in that epoch made essential contributions to mathematical physics. (Euler
made errors in his development of physics, in some cases because of a Europeanist
rejection of Newton's theories in favor of the contradictory theories of Descartes and
Leibniz.) The Frenchmen Clairaut and d'Alembert were two other great and influential
mathematicians of the mid-18th century.

Alexis Clairaut was extremely precocious, delivering a math paper at age 13, and
becoming the youngest person ever elected to the Paris Academy of Sciences. He
developed the concept of skew curves (the earliest precursor of spatial curvature); he
made very significant contributions in differential equations and mathematical
physics. Clairaut supported Newton against the Continental schools, and helped
translate Newton's work into French. The theories of Newton and Descartes gave
different predictions for the shape of the Earth (whether the poles were flattened or
pointy); Clairaut participated in Maupertuis' expedition to Lappland to measure the
polar regions. Measurements at high latitudes showed the poles to be flattened:
Newton was right. Clairaut worked on the theories of ellipsoids and the three-body
problem, e.g. Moon's orbit. That orbit was the major mathematical challenge of the
day, and there was great difficulty reconciling theory and observation. It was Clairaut
who finally resolved this, by approaching the problem with more rigor than others.
When Euler finally understood Clairaut's solution he called it "the most important and
profound discovery that has ever been made in mathematics." Later, when Halley's
Comet reappeared as he had predicted, Clairaut was acclaimed as "the new Thales."

Jean-Baptiste le Rond d' Alembert (1717-1783) France

During the century after Newton, the Laws of Motion needed to be clarified and
augmented with mathematical techniques. Jean le Rond, named after the Parisian
church where he was abandoned as a baby, played a very key role in that
development. His D'Alembert's Principle clarified Newton's Third Law and allowed
problems in dynamics to be expressed with simple partial differential equations; his
Method of Characteristics then reduced those equations to ordinary differential
equations; to solve the resultant linear systems, he effectively invented the method of
eigenvalues; he also anticipated the Cauchy-Riemann Equations. These are the same
techniques in use for many problems in physics to this day. D'Alembert was also a
forerunner in functions of a complex variable, and the notions of infinitesimals and
limits. With his treatises on dynamics, elastic collisions, hydrodynamics, cause of
winds, vibrating strings, celestial motions, refraction, etc., the young Jean le Rond
easily surpassed the efforts of his older rival, Daniel Bernoulli. He may have been first
to speak of time as a "fourth dimension." (Rivalry with the Swiss mathematicians led
to d'Alembert's sometimes being unfairly ridiculed, although it does seem true that
d'Alembert had very incorrect notions of probability.)

D'Alembert was first to prove that every polynomial has a complex root; this is now
called the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. (In France this Theorem is called the
D'Alembert-Gauss Theorem. Although Gauss was first to provide a fully rigorous
proof, d'Alembert's proof preceded, and was more nearly complete than, the attempted
proof by Euler-Lagrange.) He also did creative work in geometry (e.g. anticipating
Monge's Three Circle Theorem), and was principal creator of the major encyclopedia
of his day. D'Alembert wrote "The imagination in a mathematician who creates makes
no less difference than in a poet who invents."

Johann Heinrich Lambert (1727-1777) Switzerland, Prussia

Lambert had to drop out of school at age 12 to help support his family, but went on to
become a mathematician of great fame and breadth. He made key discoveries
involving continued fractions that led him to prove that is irrational. (He proved
more strongly that tan x and ex are both irrational for any non-zero rational x. His
proof for this was so remarkable for its time, that its completeness wasn't recognized
for over a century.) He also conjectured that and e were transcendental. He made
advances in analysis (including the introduction of Lambert's W function) and in
trigonometry (introducing the hyperbolic functions sinh and cosh); proved a key
theorem of spherical trigonometry, and solved the "trinomial equation." Lambert,
whom Kant called "the greatest genius of Germany," was an outstanding polymath: In
addition to several areas of mathematics, he made contributions in philosophy,
psychology, cosmology (conceiving of star clusters, galaxies and supergalaxies), map-
making (inventing several distinct map projections), inventions (he built the first
practical hygrometer and photometer), dynamics, and especially optics (several laws
of optics carry his name).

Lambert is famous for his work in geometry, proving Lambert's Theorem (the path of
rotation of a parabola tangent triangle passes through the parabola's focus). Lagrange
declared this famous identity, used to calculate cometary orbits, to be the most
beautiful and significant result in celestial motions. Lambert was first to explore
straight-edge constructions without compass. He also developed non-Euclidean
geometry, long before Bolyai and Lobachevsky did.

Joseph-Louis (Comte de) Lagrange (1736-1813) Italy, France

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia) was a brilliant man who
advanced to become a teen-age Professor shortly after first studying mathematics. He
excelled in all fields of analysis and number theory; he made key contributions to the
theories of determinants, continued fractions, and many other fields. He developed
partial differential equations far beyond those of D. Bernoulli and d'Alembert,
developed the calculus of variations far beyond that of the Bernoullis, discovered the
Laplace transform before Laplace did, and developed terminology and notation (e.g.
the use of f'(x) and f''(x) for a function's 1st and 2nd derivatives). He proved a
fundamental Theorem of Group Theory. He laid the foundations for the theory of
polynomial equations which Cauchy, Abel, Galois and Poincar would later complete.
Number theory was almost just a diversion for Lagrange, whose focus was analysis;
nevertheless he was the master of that field as well, proving difficult and historic
theorems including Wilson's Conjecture (p divides (p-1)! + 1 when p is prime);
Lagrange's Four-Square Theorem (every positive integer is the sum of four squares);
and that nx2 + 1 = y2 has solutions for every positive non-square integer n.

Lagrange's many contributions to physics include understanding of vibrations (he

found an error in Newton's work and published the definitive treatise on sound),
celestial mechanics (including an explanation of why the Moon keeps the same face
pointed towards the Earth), the Principle of Least Action (which Hamilton compared
to poetry), and the discovery of the Lagrangian points (e.g., in Jupiter's orbit).
Lagrange's textbooks were noted for clarity and inspired most of the 19th-century
mathematicians on this list. Unlike Newton, who used calculus to derive his results
but then worked backwards to create geometric proofs for publication, Lagrange
relied only on analysis. "No diagrams will be found in this work" he wrote in the
preface to his masterpiece Mcanique analytique.

Lagrange once wrote "As long as algebra and geometry have been separated, their
progress have been slow and their uses limited; but when these two sciences have
been united, they have lent each mutual forces, and have marched together towards
perfection." Both W.W.R. Ball and E.T. Bell, renowned mathematical historians,
bypass Euler to name Lagrange as "the Greatest Mathematician of the 18th Century."
Jacobi bypassed Newton and Gauss to call Lagrange "perhaps the greatest
mathematical genius since Archimedes."

Gaspard Monge (Comte de Pluse) (1746-1818) France

Gaspard Monge, son of a humble peddler, was an industrious and creative inventor
who astounded early with his genius, becoming a professor of physics at age 16. As a
military engineer he developed the new field of descriptive geometry, so useful to
engineering that it was kept a military secret for 15 years. Monge made early
discoveries in chemistry and helped promote Lavoisier's work; he also wrote papers
on optics and metallurgy; Monge's talents were so diverse that he became Minister of
the Navy in the revolutionary government, and eventually became a close friend and
companion of Napoleon Bonaparte. Traveling with Napoleon he demonstrated great
courage on several occasions.

In mathematics, Monge is called the "Father of Differential Geometry," and it is that

foundational work for which he is most praised. He also did work in discrete math,
partial differential equations, and calculus of variations. He anticipated Poncelet's
Principle of Continuity. Monge's most famous theorems of geometry are the Three
Circles Theorem and Four Spheres Theorem. His early work in descriptive geometry
has little interest to pure mathematics, but his application of calculus to the curvature
of surfaces inspired Gauss and eventually Riemann, and led the great Lagrange to say
"With [Monge's] application of analysis to geometry this devil of a man will make
himself immortal."

Monge was an inspirational teacher whose students included Fourier, Chasles,

Brianchon, Ampere, Carnot, Poncelet, several other famous mathematicians, and
perhaps indirectly, Sophie Germain. Chasles reports that Monge never drew figures in
his lectures, but could make "the most complicated forms appear in space ... with no
other aid than his hands, whose movements admirably supplemented his words." The
contributions of Poncelet to synthetic geometry may be more important than those of
Monge, but Monge demonstrated great genius as an untutored child, while Poncelet's
skills probably developed due to his great teacher.

Pierre-Simon (Marquis de) Laplace (1749-1827) France

Laplace was the preeminent mathematical astronomer, and is often called the "French
Newton." His masterpiece was Mecanique Celeste which redeveloped and improved
Newton's work on planetary motions using calculus. While Newton had shown that
the two-body gravitation problem led to orbits which were ellipses (or other conic
sections), Laplace was more interested in the much more difficult problems involving
three or more bodies. (Would Jupiter's pull on Saturn eventually propel Saturn into a
closer orbit, or was Saturn's orbit stable for eternity?) Laplace's equations had the
optimistic outcome that the solar system was stable.

Laplace advanced the nebular hypothesis of solar system origin, and was first to
conceive of black holes. (He also conceived of multiple galaxies, but this was
Lambert's idea first.) He explained the so-called secular acceleration of the Moon.
(Today we know Laplace's theories do not fully explain the Moon's path, nor
guarantee orbit stability.) His other accomplishments in physics include theories about
the speed of sound and surface tension. He was noted for his strong belief in
determinism, famously replying to Napoleon's question about God with: "I have no
need of that hypothesis."

Laplace viewed mathematics as just a tool for developing his physical theories.
Nevertheless, he made many important mathematical discoveries and inventions
(although the Laplace Transform itself was already known to Lagrange). He was the
premier expert at differential and difference equations, and definite integrals. He
developed spherical harmonics, potential theory, and the theory of determinants;
anticipated Fourier's series; and advanced Euler's technique of generating functions. In
the fields of probability and statistics he made key advances: he proved the Law of
Least Squares, and introduced the controversial ("Bayesian") rule of succession. In the
theory of equations, he was first to prove that any polynomial of even degree must
have a real quadratic factor.

Others might place Laplace higher on the List, but he proved no fundamental
theorems of pure mathematics (though his partial differential equation for fluid
dynamics is one of the most famous in physics), founded no major branch of pure
mathematics, and wasn't particularly concerned with rigorous proof. (He is famous for
skipping difficult proof steps with the phrase "It is easy to see".) Nevertheless he was
surely one of the greatest applied mathematicians ever.

Adrien Marie Legendre (1752-1833) France

Legendre was an outstanding mathematician who did important work in plane and
solid geometry, spherical trigonometry, celestial mechanics and other areas of
physics, and especially elliptic integrals and number theory. He found key results in
the theories of sums of squares and sums of k-gonal numbers. He also made key
contributions in several areas of analysis: he invented the Legendre transform and
Legendre polynomials; the notation for partial derivatives is due to him. He invented
the Legendre symbol; invented the study of zonal harmonics; proved that 2 was
irrational (the irrationality of had already been proved by Lambert); and wrote
important textbooks in several fields. Although he never accepted non-Euclidean
geometry, and had spent much time trying to prove the Parallel Postulate, his inspiring
geometry text remained a standard until the 20th century. As one of France's premier
mathematicians, Legendre did other significant work, promoting the careers of
Lagrange and Laplace, developing trig tables, geodesic projects, etc.

There are several important theorems proposed by Legendre for which he is denied
credit, either because his proof was incomplete or was preceded by another's. He
proposed the famous theorem about primes in a progression which was proved by
Dirichlet; proved and used the Law of Least Squares which Gauss had left
unpublished; proved the N=5 case of Fermat's Last Theorem which is credited to
Dirichlet; proposed the famous Prime Number Theorem which was finally proved by
Hadamard; improved the Fermat-Cauchy result about sums of k-gonal numbers but
this topic wasn't fruitful; and developed various techniques commonly credited to
Laplace. His two most famous theorems of number theory, the Law of Quadratic
Reciprocity and the Three Squares Theorem (a difficult extension of Lagrange's Four
Squares Theorem), were each enhanced by Gauss a few years after Legendre's work.
Legendre also proved an early version of Bonnet's Theorem. Legendre's work in the
theory of equations and elliptic integrals directly inspired the achievements of Galois
and Abel (which then obsoleted much of Legendre's own work); Chebyshev's work
also built on Legendre's foundations.

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) France

Joseph Fourier had a varied career: precocious but mischievous orphan, theology
student, young professor of mathematics (advancing the theory of equations), then
revolutionary activist. Under Napoleon he was a brilliant and important teacher and
historian; accompanied the French Emperor to Egypt; and did excellent service as
district governor of Grenoble. In his spare time at Grenoble he continued the work in
mathematics and physics that led to his immortality. After the fall of Napoleon,
Fourier exiled himself to England, but returned to France when offered an important
academic position and published his revolutionary treatise on the Theory of Heat.
Fourier anticipated linear programming, developing the simplex method and Fourier-
Motzkin Elimination; and did significant work in operator theory. He is also noted for
the notion of dimensional analysis, was first to describe the Greenhouse Effect, and
continued his earlier brilliant work with equations.

Fourier's greatest fame rests on his use of trigonometric series (now called Fourier
series) in the solution of differential equations. Since "Fourier" analysis is in
extremely common use among applied mathematicians, he joins the select company of
the eponyms of "Cartesian" coordinates, "Gaussian" curve, and "Boolean" algebra.
Because of the importance of Fourier analysis, many listmakers would rank Fourier
much higher than I have done; however the work was not exceptional
as pure mathematics. Fourier's Heat Equation built on Newton's Law of Cooling; and
the Fourier series solution itself had already been introduced by Euler, Lagrange and
Daniel Bernoulli.

Fourier's solution to the heat equation was counterintuitive (heat transfer doesn't seem
to involve the oscillations fundamental to trigonometric functions): The brilliance of
Fourier's imagination is indicated in that the solution had been rejected by Lagrange
himself. Although rigorous Fourier Theorems were finally proved only by Dirichlet,
Riemann and Lebesgue, it has been said that it was Fourier's "very disregard for rigor"
that led to his great achievement, which Lord Kelvin compared to poetry.

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) Germany

Carl Friedrich Gauss, the "Prince of Mathematics," exhibited his calculative powers
when he corrected his father's arithmetic before the age of three. His revolutionary
nature was demonstrated at age twelve, when he began questioning the axioms of
Euclid. His genius was confirmed at the age of nineteen when he proved that the
regular n-gon was constructible if and only if it is the product of distinct prime Fermat
numbers. (He didn't complete the proof of the only-if part. Click to see construction of
regular 17-gon.) Also at age 19, he proved Fermat's conjecture that every number is
the sum of three triangle numbers. (He further determined the number of distinct ways
such a sum could be formed.) At age 24 he published Disquisitiones Arithmeticae,
probably the greatest book of pure mathematics ever.

Although he published fewer papers than some other great mathematicians, Gauss
may be the greatest theorem prover ever. Several important theorems and lemmas
bear his name; he extended Euclid's Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (prime
factorization is unique) to the Gaussian (complex) integers; and he was first to
produce a rigorous proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra (that an n-th degree
polynomial has n complex roots). Gauss himself used "Fundamental Theorem" to
refer to Euler's Law of Quadratic Reciprocity; Gauss was first to provide a proof for
this, and provided eight distinct proofs for it over the years. Gauss proved the n=3
case of Fermat's Last Theorem for Eisenstein integers (the triangular lattice-points on
the complex plane); though more general, Gauss' proof was simpler than the real
integer proof; this simplification method revolutionized algebra. Other work by Gauss
led to fundamental theorems in statistics, vector analysis, function theory, and
generalizations of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.

Gauss built the theory of complex numbers into its modern form, including the notion
of "monogenic" functions which are now ubiquitous in mathematical physics.
(Constructing the regular 17-gon as a teenager was actually an exercise in complex-
number algebra, not geometry.) Gauss developed the arithmetic of congruences and
became the premier number theoretician of all time. Other contributions of Gauss
include hypergeometric series, foundations of statistics, and differential geometry. He
proved a surprising fundamental theorem about the curvature of manifolds. He also
did important work in geometry, providing an improved solution to Apollonius'
famous problem of tangent circles, stating and proving the Fundamental Theorem of
Normal Axonometry, and solving astronomical problems related to comet orbits and
navigation by the stars. Ceres, the first asteroid, was discovered when Gauss was a
young man; but only a few observations were made before it disappeared into the
Sun's brightness. Could its orbit be predicted well enough to rediscover it on re-
emergence? Laplace, one of the most respected mathematicians of the time, declared
it impossible. Gauss became famous when he used an 8th-degree polynomial equation
to successfully predict Ceres' orbit. Gauss also did important work in several areas of
physics, developed an important modification to Mercator's map projection, invented
the heliotrope, and co-invented the telegraph.

Much of Gauss's work wasn't published: unbeknownst to his colleagues it was Gauss
who first discovered non-Euclidean geometry (even anticipating Einstein by
suggesting physical space might not be Euclidean), doubly periodic elliptic functions,
a prime distribution formula, quaternions, foundations of topology, the Law of Least
Squares, Dirichlet's class number formula, the key Bonnet's Theorem of differential
geometry (now usually called Gauss-Bonnet Theorem), the butterfly procedure for
rapid calculation of Fourier series, and even the rudiments of knot theory. Gauss was
first to prove the Fundamental Theorem of Functions of a Complex Variable (that the
line-integral over a closed curve of a monogenic function is zero), but he let Cauchy
take the credit. Gauss was very prolific, and may be the most brilliant theorem prover
who ever lived, so many would rank him #1. But several others on the list had
more historical importance. Abel hints at a reason for this: "[Gauss] is like the fox,
who effaces his tracks in the sand."

Gauss once wrote "It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, ... which grants the
greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away
from it, in order to go into darkness again ..."

Simon Denis Poisson (1781-1840) France

Simon Poisson was a protg of Laplace and, like his mentor, is among the greatest
applied mathematicians ever. Poisson was an extremely prolific researcher and also an
excellent teacher. In addition to important advances in several areas of physics,
Poisson made key contributions to Fourier analysis, definite integrals, path integrals,
statistics, partial differential equations, calculus of variations and other fields of
mathematics. Dozens of discoveries are named after Poisson; for example the Poisson
summation formula which has applications in analysis, number theory, lattice theory,
etc. He was first to note the paradoxical properties of the Cauchy distribution. He
made improvements to Lagrange's equations of celestial motions, which Lagrange
himself found inspirational. Another of Poisson's contributions to mathematical
physics was his conclusion that the wave theory of light implies a bright Arago spot at
the center of certain shadows. (Poisson used this paradoxical result to argue that the
wave theory was false, but instead the Arago spot, hitherto hardly noticed, was
observed experimentally.) Poisson once said "Life is good for only two things,
discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics."
Bernard Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano (1781-1848) Bohemia

Bolzano was an ordained Catholic priest, a religious philosopher, and focused his
mathematical attention on fields like metalogic, writing "I prized only ... mathematics
which was ... philosophy." Still he made several important mathematical discoveries
ahead of his time. His liberal religious philosophy upset the Imperial rulers; he was
charged with heresy, placed under house arrest, and his writings censored. This
censorship meant that many of his great discoveries turned up only posthumously, and
were first rediscovered by others. He was noted for advocating great rigor, and is
appreciated for developing the (, ) approach for rigorous proofs in analysis; this
work inspired the great Weierstrass.

Bolzano gave the first analytic proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra; the
first rigorous proof that continuous functions achieve any intermediate value
(Bolzano's Theorem, rediscovered by Cauchy); the first proof that a bounded
sequence of reals has a convergent subsequence (Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem); was
first to describe a nowhere-differentiable continuous function; and anticipated
Cantor's discovery of the distinction between denumerable and non-denumerable
infinities. If he had focused on mathematics and published more, he might be
considered one of the most important mathematicians of his era.

Jean-Victor Poncelet (1788-1867) France

After studying under Monge, Poncelet became an officer in Napoleon's army, then a
prisoner of the Russians. To keep up his spirits as a prisoner he devised and solved
mathematical problems using charcoal and the walls of his prison cell instead of
pencil and paper. During this time he reinvented projective geometry. Regaining his
freedom, he wrote many papers, made numerous contributions to geometry; he also
made contributions to practical mechanics. Poncelet is considered one of the most
influential geometers ever; he is especially noted for his Principle of Continuity, an
intuition with broad application. His notion of imaginary solutions in geometry was
inspirational. Although projective geometry had been studied earlier by
mathematicians like Desargues, Poncelet's work excelled and served as an inspiration
for other branches of mathematics including algebra, topology, Cayley's invariant
theory and group-theoretic developments by Lie and Klein. His theorems of geometry
include his Closure Theorem about Poncelet Traverses, the Poncelet-Brianchon
Hyperbola Theorem, and Poncelet's Porism (if two conic sections are respectively
inscribed and circumscribed by an n-gon, then there are infinitely many such n-gons).
Perhaps his most famous theorem, although it was left to Steiner to complete a proof,
is the beautiful Poncelet-Steiner Theorem about straight-edge constructions.
Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857) France
Cauchy was extraordinarily prodigious, prolific and inventive. Home-schooled, he
awed famous mathematicians at an early age. In contrast to Gauss and Newton, he
was almost over-eager to publish; in his day his fame surpassed that of Gauss and has
continued to grow. Cauchy did significant work in analysis, algebra, number theory
and discrete topology. His most important contributions included convergence criteria
for infinite series, the "theory of substitutions" (permutation group theory), and
especially his insistence on rigorous proofs.

Cauchy's research also included differential equations, determinants, and probability.

He invented the calculus of residues, rediscovered Bolzano's Theorem, and much
more. Although he was one of the first great mathematicians to focus on abstract
mathematics (another was Euler), he also made important contributions to
mathematical physics, e.g. the theory of elasticity. Cauchy's theorem of solid
geometry is important in rigidity theory; the Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality has very
wide application (e.g. as the basis for Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle); several
important lemmas of analysis are due to Cauchy; the famous Burnside's Counting
Theorem was first discovered by Cauchy; etc. He was first to prove Taylor's Theorem
rigorously, and first to prove Fermat's conjecture that every positive integer can be
expressed as the sum of k k-gonal numbers for any k. (Gauss had proved the case k =
3.)

One of the duties of a great mathematician is to nurture his successors, but Cauchy
selfishly dropped the ball on both of the two greatest young mathematicians of his
day, mislaying key manuscripts of both Abel and Galois. Cauchy is credited with
group theory, yet it was Galois who invented this first, abstracting it far more than
Cauchy did, some of this in a work which Cauchy "mislaid." (For this
historical miscontribution perhaps Cauchy should be demoted.)

August Ferdinand Mbius (1790-1868) Germany

Mbius worked as a Professor of physics and astronomy, but his astronomy teachers
included Carl Gauss and other brilliant mathematicians, and Mbius is most noted for
his work in mathematics. He had outstanding intuition and originality, and prepared
his books and papers with great care. He made important advances in number theory,
topology, and especially projective geometry. Several inventions are named after him,
such as the Mbius transformation and Mbius net of geometry, and the Mbius
function and Mbius inversion formula of algebraic number theory. He is most
famous for the Mbius strip; this one-sided strip was first discovered by Lister, but
Mbius went much further and developed important new insights in topology.

Mbius' greatest contributions were to projective geometry, where he introduced the

use of homogeneous barycentric coordinates as well as signed angles and lengths.
These revolutionary discoveries inspired Plcker, and were declared by Gauss to be
"among the most revolutionary intuitions in the history of mathematics."

Nicolai Ivanovitch Lobachevsky (1793-1856) Russia

Lobachevsky is famous for discovering non-Euclidean geometry. He did not regard

this new geometry as simply a theoretical curiosity, writing "There is no branch of
mathematics ... which may not someday be applied to the phenomena of the real
world." He also worked in several branches of analysis and physics, anticipated the
modern definition of function, and may have been first to explicitly note the
distinction between continuous and differentiable curves. He also discovered the
important Dandelin-Grffe method of polynomial roots independently of Dandelin
and Grffe. (In his lifetime, Lobachevsky was under-appreciated and over-worked; his
duties led him to learn architecture and even some medicine.)

Although Gauss and Bolyai discovered non-Euclidean geometry independently about

the same time as Lobachevsky, it is worth noting that both of them had strong praise
for Lobachevsky's genius. His particular significance was in daring to reject a 2100-
year old axiom; thus William K. Clifford called Lobachevsky "the Copernicus of
Geometry."

Michel Floral Chasles (1793-1880) France

Chasles was a very original thinker who developed new techniques for synthetic
geometry. He introduced new notions like pencil and cross-ratio; made great progress
with the Principle of Duality; and showed how to combine the power of analysis with
the intuitions of geometry. He invented a theory of characteristics and used it to
become the Founder of Enumerative Geometry. He proved a key theorem about solid
body kinematics. His influence was very large; for example Poincar (student of
Darboux, who in turn was Chasles' student) often applied Chasles' methods. Chasles
was also a historian of mathematics; for example he noted that Euclid had anticipated
the method of cross-ratios.
Jakob Steiner (1796-1863) Switzerland

Jakob Steiner made many major advances in synthetic geometry, hoping that classical
methods could avoid any need for analysis; and indeed, like Isaac Newton, he was
often able to equal or surpass methods of analysis or the calculus of variations using
just pure geometry; for example he had pure synthetic proofs for a notable extension
to Pascal's Mystic Hexagram, and a reproof of Salmon's Theorem that cubic surfaces
have exactly 27 lines. (He wrote "Calculating replaces thinking while geometry
stimulates it.") One mathematical historian (Boyer) wrote "Steiner reminds one of
Gauss in that ideas and discoveries thronged through his mind so rapidly that he could
scarcely reduce them to order on paper." Although the Principle of Duality underlying
projective geometry was already known, he gave it a radically new and more
productive basis, and created a new theory of conics. His work combined generality,
creativity and rigor.

Steiner developed several famous construction methods, e.g. for a triangle's smallest
circumscribing and largest inscribing ellipses, and for its "Malfatti circles." Among
many famous and important theorems of classic and projective geometry, he proved
that the Wallace lines of a triangle lie in a 3-pointed hypocycloid, developed a
formula for the partitioning of space by planes, a fact about the surface areas of
tetrahedra, and proved several facts about his famous Steiner's Chain of tangential
circles and his famous "Roman surface." Perhaps his three most famous theorems are
the Poncelet-Steiner Theorem (lengths constructible with straightedge and compass
can be constructed with straightedge alone as long as the picture plane contains the
center and circumference of some circle), the Double-Element Theorem about self-
homologous elements in projective geometry, and the Isoperimetric Theorem that
among solids of equal volume the sphere will have minimum area, etc. (Dirichlet
found a flaw in the proof of the Isoperimetric Theorem which was later corrected by
Weierstrass.) Steiner is often called, along with Apollonius of Perga (who lived 2000
years earlier), one of the two greatest pure geometers ever. (The qualifier "pure" is
added to exclude such geniuses as Archimedes, Newton and Pascal from this
comparison. I've included Steiner for his extreme brilliance and productivity: several
geometers had much more historic influence, and as solely a geometer he arguably
lacked "depth.")

Steiner once wrote: "For all their wealth of content, ... music, mathematics, and chess
are resplendently useless (applied mathematics is a higher plumbing, a kind of music
for the police band). They are metaphysically trivial, irresponsible. They refuse to
relate outward, to take reality for arbiter. This is the source of their witchery."
Julius Plcker (1801-1868) Germany

Plcker was one of the most innovative geometers, inventing line geometry
(extending the atoms of geometry beyond just points), enumerative geometry (which
considered such questions as the number of loops in an algebraic curve), geometries
of more than three dimensions, and generalizations of projective geometry. He also
gave an improved theoretic basis for the Principle of Duality. His novel methods and
notations were important to the development of modern analytic geometry, and
inspired Cayley, Klein and Lie. He resolved the famous Cramer-Euler Paradox and
the related Poncelet Paradox by studying the singularities of curves; Cayley described
this work as "most important ... beyond all comparison in the entire subject of modern
geometry." In part due to conflict with his more famous rival, Jakob Steiner, Plcker
was under-appreciated in his native Germany, but achieved fame in France and
England. In addition to his mathematical work in algebraic and analytic geometry,
Plcker did significant work in physics, e.g. his work with cathode rays. Although less
brilliant as a theorem prover than Steiner, Plcker's work, taking full advantage of
analysis and seeking physical applications, was far more influential.

Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829) Norway

At an early age, Niels Abel studied the works of the greatest mathematicians, found
flaws in their proofs, and resolved to reprove some of these theorems rigorously. He
was the first to fully prove the general case of Newton's Binomial Theorem, one of the
most widely applied theorems in mathematics. Several important theorems of analysis
are named after Abel, including the (deceptively simple) Abel's Theorem of
Convergence (published posthumously). Along with Galois, Abel is considered one of
the two founders of group theory. Abel also made contributions in algebraic geometry
and the theory of equations.

Inversion (replacing y = f(x) with x = f-1(y)) is a key idea in mathematics (consider

Newton's Fundamental Theorem of Calculus); Abel developed this insight. Legendre
had spent much of his life studying elliptic integrals, but Abel inverted these to get
elliptic functions, and was first to observe (but in a manuscript mislaid by Cauchy)
that they were doubly periodic. Elliptic functions quickly became a productive field of
mathematics, and led to more general complex-variable functions, which were
important to the development of both abstract and applied mathematics.

Finding the roots of polynomials is a key mathematical problem: the general solution
of the quadratic equation was known by ancients; the discovery of general methods
for solving polynomials of degree three and four is usually treated as the major math
achievement of the 16th century; so for over two centuries an algebraic solution for
the general 5th-degree polynomial (quintic) was a Holy Grail sought by most of the
greatest mathematicians. Abel proved that most quintics did not have such solutions.
This discovery, at the age of only nineteen, would have quickly awed the world, but
Abel was impoverished, had few contacts, and spoke no German. When Gauss
received Abel's manuscript he discarded it unread, assuming the unfamiliar author
was just another crackpot trying to square the circle or some such. His genius was too
great for him to be ignored long, but, still impoverished, Abel died of tuberculosis at
the age of twenty-six. His fame lives on and even the lower-case word 'abelian' is
applied to several concepts. Liouville said Abel was the greatest genius he ever met.
Hermite said "Abel has left mathematicians enough to keep them busy for 500 years."

Carl G. J. Jacobi (1804-1851) Germany

Jacobi was a prolific mathematician who did decisive work in the algebra and analysis
of complex variables, and did work in number theory (e.g. cubic reciprocity) which
excited Carl Gauss. He is sometimes described as the successor to Gauss. As an
algorist (manipulator of involved algebraic expressions), he may have been surpassed
only by Euler and Ramanujan. He was also a very highly regarded teacher. In
mathematical physics, Jacobi perfected Hamilton's principle of stationary action, and
made other important advances.

Jacobi's most significant early achievement was the theory of elliptic functions, e.g.
his fundamental result about functions with multiple periods. Jacobi was the first to
apply elliptic functions to number theory, producing a new proof of Fermat's famous
conjecture (Lagrange's theorem) that every integer is the sum of four squares. He also
made important discoveries in many other areas including theta functions (e.g. his
Jacobi Triple Product Identity), higher fields, number theory, algebraic geometry,
differential equations, q-series, hypergeometric series, determinants, Abelian
functions, and dynamics. He devised the algorithms still used to calculate
eigenvectors and for other important matrix manipulations. The range of his work is
suggested by the fact that the "Hungarian method," an efficient solution to an
optimization problem published more than a century after Jacobi's death, has since
been found among Jacobi's papers.

Like Abel, as a young man Jacobi attempted to factor the general quintic equation.
Unlike Abel, he seems never to have considered proving its impossibility. This fact is
sometimes cited to show that despite Jacobi's creativity, his ill-fated contemporary
was the more brilliant genius.

Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (1805-1859) Germany

Dirichlet was preeminent in algebraic and analytic number theory, but did advanced
work in several other fields as well: He discovered the modern definition of function,
the Voronoi diagram of geometry, and important concepts in differential equations,
topology, and statistics. His proofs were noted both for great ingenuity and
unprecedented rigor. As an example of his careful rigor, he found a fundamental flaw
in Steiner's Isoperimetric Theorem proof which no one else had noticed. In addition to
his own discoveries, Dirichlet played a key role in interpreting the work of Gauss, and
was an influential teacher, mentoring famous mathematicians like Bernhard Riemann
(who considered Dirichlet second only to Gauss among living mathematicians),
Leopold Kronecker and Gotthold Eisenstein.

As an impoverished lad Dirichlet spent his money on math textbooks; Gauss'

masterwork became his life-long companion. Fermat and Euler had proved the
impossibility of xk + yk = zk for k = 4 and k = 3; Dirichlet became famous by proving
impossibility for k = 5 at the age of 20. Later he proved the case k = 14 and, later still,
may have helped Kummer extend Dirichlet's quadratic fields, leading to proofs of
more cases. More important than his work with Fermat's Last Theorem was his Unit
Theorem, considered one of the most important theorems of algebraic number theory.
The Unit Theorem is unusually difficult to prove; it is said that Dirichlet discovered
the proof while listening to music in the Sistine Chapel. A key step in the proof
uses Dirichlet's Pigeonhole Principle, a trivial idea but which Dirichlet applied with
great ingenuity.

Dirichlet did seminal work in analysis and is considered the founder of analytic
number theory. He invented a method of L-series to prove the important theorem
(Gauss' conjecture) that any arithmetic series (without a common factor) has an
infinity of primes. It was Dirichlet who proved the fundamental Theorem of Fourier
series: that periodic analytic functions can always be represented as a simple
trigonometric series. Although he never proved it rigorously, he is especially noted for
the Dirichlet's Principle which posits the existence of certain solutions in the calculus
of variations, and which Riemann found to be particularly fruitful. Other fundamental
results Dirichlet contributed to analysis and number theory include a theorem about
Diophantine approximations and his Class Number Formula.
William Rowan (Sir) Hamilton (1805-1865) Ireland
Hamilton was a childhood prodigy. Home-schooled and self-taught, he started as a
student of languages and literature, was influenced by an arithmetic prodigy his own
age, read Euclid, Newton and Lagrange, found an error by Laplace, and made new
discoveries in optics; all this before the age of seventeen when he first attended
school. At college he enjoyed unprecedented success in all fields, but his
undergraduate days were cut short abruptly by his appointment as Royal Astronomer
of Ireland at the age of 22. He soon began publishing his revolutionary treatises on
optics, in which he developed Hamilton's Principle of Stationary Action. This
Principle refined and corrected the earlier principles of least action developed by
Maupertuis, Fermat, and Euler; it (and related principles) are key to much of modern
physics. His early writing also predicted that some crystals would have an hitherto
unknown "conical" refraction mode; this was soon confirmed experimentally.

Hamilton's Principle of Least Action, and its associated equations and concept of
configuration space, led to a revolution in mathematical physics. Since Maupertuis
had named this Principle a century earlier, it is possible to underestimate Hamilton's
contribution. However Maupertuis, along with others credited with anticipating the
idea (Fermat, Leibniz, Euler and Lagrange) failed to state the full Principle correctly.
Rather than minimizing action, physical systems sometimes achieve a non-minimal
but stationary action in configuration space. (Poisson and d' Alembert had noticed
exceptions to Euler-Lagrange least action, but failed to find Hamilton's solution.
Jacobi also deserves some credit for the Principle, but his work came after reading
Hamilton.) Because of this Principle, as well as his wave-particle duality (which
would be further developed by Planck and Einstein), Hamilton can be considered a
major early influence on quantum theory.

Hamilton also made revolutionary contributions to dynamics, differential equations,

the theory of equations, numerical analysis, fluctuating functions, and graph theory
(he marketed a puzzle based on his Hamiltonian paths). He invented the ingenious
hodograph. He coined several mathematical terms
including vector, scalar, associative, and tensor. In addition to his brilliance and
creativity, Hamilton was renowned for thoroughness and produced voluminous
writings on several subjects.

Hamilton himself considered his greatest accomplishment to be the development of

quaternions, a non-Abelian field to handle 3-D rotations. While there is no 3-D analog
to the Gaussian complex-number plane (based on the equation i2 = -1 ), quaternions
derive from a 4-D analog based on i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = -jik = -1. (Despite their being
"obsoleted" by more general matrix and tensor methods, quaternions are still in wide
engineering use because of certain practical advantages.)

Hamilton once wrote: "On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is
nothing great but mind."

Hermann Gnter Grassmann (1809-1877) Germany

Grassmann was an exceptional polymath: the term Grassmann's Law is applied to two
separate facts in the fields of optics and linguistics, both discovered by Hermann
Grassmann. He also did advanced work in crystallography, electricity, botany,
folklore, and also wrote on political subjects. He had little formal training in
mathematics, yet single-handedly developed linear algebra, vector and tensor calculus,
multi-dimensional geometry, new results about cubic surfaces, the theory of
extension, and exterior algebra; most of this work was so innovative it was not
properly appreciated in his own lifetime. (Heaviside rediscovered vector analysis
many years later.) Grassmann's exterior algebra, and the associated concept of
Grassmannian manifold, provide a simplifying framework for many algebraic
calculations. Recently their use led to an important simplification in quantum physics
calculations.

Of his linear algebra, one historian wrote "few have come closer than Hermann
Grassmann to creating, single-handedly, a new subject." Important mathematicians
inspired directly by Grassmann include Peano, Klein, Cartan, Hankel, Clifford, and
Whitehead.

Joseph Liouville (1809-1882) France

Liouville did expert research in several areas including number theory, differential
geometry, complex analysis (especially Sturm-Liouville theory, boundary value
problems and dynamical analysis), topology and mathematical physics. Several
theorems bear his name, including the key result that any bounded entire function
must be constant (the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra is an easy corollary of this!);
important results in differential equations, differential algebra, differential geometry; a
key result about conformal mappings; and an invariance law about trajectories in
phase space which leads to the Second Law of Thermodynamics and is key to
Hamilton's work in physics. He was first to prove the existence of transcendental
numbers. (His proof was constructive, unlike that of Cantor which came 30 years
later). He invented Liouville integrability and fractional calculus; he found a new
proof of the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity. In addition to multiple Liouville
Theorems, there are two "Liouville Principles": a fundamental result in differential
algebra, and a fruitful theorem in number theory. Liouville was hugely prolific in
number theory but this work is largely overlooked, e.g. the following remarkable
generalization of Aryabhata's identity:
for all N, (da3) = ( da)2
where da is the number of divisors of a, and the sums are taken over all
divisors a of N.

Liouville established an important journal; influenced Catalan, Jordan, Chebyshev,

Hermite; and helped promote other mathematicians' work, especially that of variste
Galois, whose important results were almost unknown until Liouville clarified them.
In 1851 Augustin Cauchy was bypassed to give a prestigious professorship to
Liouville instead.

Ernst Eduard Kummer (1810-1893) Germany

Despite poverty, Kummer became an important mathematician at an early age, doing

work with hypergeometric series, functions and equations, and number theory. He
worked on the 4-degree Kummer Surface, an important algebraic form which inspired
Klein's early work. He solved the ancient problem of finding all rational
quadrilaterals. His most important discovery was ideal numbers; this led to the theory
of ideals and p-adic numbers; this discovery's revolutionary nature has been compared
to that of non-Euclidean geometry. Kummer is famous for his attempts to prove, with
the aid of his ideal numbers, Fermat's Last Theorem. He established that theorem for
almost all exponents (including all less than 100) but not the general case.

Kummer was an inspirational teacher; his famous students include Cantor, Frobenius,
Fuchs, Schwarz, Gordan, Joachimsthal, Bachmann, and Kronecker. (Leopold
Kronecker was a brilliant genius sometimes ranked ahead of Kummer in lists like this;
that Kummer was Kronecker's teacher at high school persuades me to give Kummer
priority.)

variste Galois (1811-1832) France

Galois, who died before the age of twenty-one, not only never became a professor, but
was barely allowed to study as an undergraduate. His output of papers, mostly
published posthumously, is much smaller than most of the others on this list, yet it is
considered among the most awesome works in mathematics. He applied group theory
to the theory of equations, revolutionizing both fields. (Galois coined the
mathematical term group.) While Abel was the first to prove that some polynomial
equations had no algebraic solutions, Galois established the necessary and sufficient
condition for algebraic solutions to exist. His principal treatise was a letter he wrote
the night before his fatal duel, of which Hermann Weyl wrote: "This letter, if judged
by the novelty and profundity of ideas it contains, is perhaps the most substantial
piece of writing in the whole literature of mankind."

Galois' ideas were very far-reaching; for example he is sometimes credited as first to
prove that trisecting a general angle with Plato's rules is impossible. Galois is
sometimes cited (instead of Archimedes, Gauss or Ramanujan) as "the greatest
mathematical genius ever." His last words (spoken to his brother) were "Ne pleure
pas, Alfred! J'ai besoin de tout mon courage pour mourir vingt ans!" This tormented
life, with its pointless early end, is one of the great tragedies of mathematical history.
Although Galois' group theory is considered one of the greatest developments of 19th
century mathematics, Galois' writings were largely ignored until the revolutionary
work of Klein and Lie.

James Joseph Sylvester (1814-1897) England, U.S.A.

Sylvester made important contributions in matrix theory, invariant theory, number

theory, partition theory, reciprocant theory, geometry, and combinatorics. He invented
the theory of elementary divisors, and co-invented the law of quadratic forms. It is
said he coined more new mathematical terms
(e.g. matrix, invariant, discriminant, covariant, syzygy, graph, Jacobian) than anyone
except Leibniz. Sylvester was especially noted for the broad range of his mathematics
and his ingenious methods. He solved (or partially solved) a huge variety of rich
puzzles including various geometric gems; the enumeration of polynomial roots first
tackled by Descartes and Newton; and, by advancing the theory of partitions, the
system of equations posed by Euler as The Problem of the Virgins. Sylvester was also
a linguist, a poet, and did work in mechanics (inventing the skew pantograph) and
optics. He once wrote, "May not music be described as the mathematics of the sense,
mathematics as music of the reason?"
Karl Wilhelm Theodor Weierstrass (1815-1897) Germany
Weierstrass devised new definitions for the primitives of calculus, developed the
concept of uniform convergence, and was then able to prove several fundamental but
hitherto unproven theorems. Starting strictly from the integers, he also applied his
axiomatic methods to a definition of irrational numbers. He developed important new
insights in other fields including the calculus of variations, elliptic functions, and
trigonometry. Weierstrass shocked his colleagues when he demonstrated a continuous
function which is differentiable nowhere. (Both this and the Bolzano-Weierstrass
Theorem were rediscoveries of forgotten results by the under-published Bolzano.) He
found simpler proofs of many existing theorems, including Gauss' Fundamental
Theorem of Algebra and the fundamental Hermite-Lindemann Transcendence
Theorem. Steiner's proof of the Isoperimetric Theorem contained a flaw, so
Weierstrass became the first to supply a fully rigorous proof of that famous and
ancient result. Peter Dirichlet was a champion of rigor, but Weierstrass discovered a
flaw in the argument for Dirichlet's Principle of of variational calculus.

Weierstrass demonstrated extreme brilliance as a youth, but during his college years
he detoured into drinking and dueling and ended up as a degreeless secondary school
teacher. During this time he studied Abel's papers, developed results in elliptic and
Abelian functions, proved the Laurent expansion theorem before Laurent did, and
independently proved the Fundamental Theorem of Functions of a Complex Variable.
He was interested in power series and felt that others had overlooked the importance
of Abel's Theorem. Eventually one of his papers was published in a journal; he was
immediately given an honorary doctorate and was soon regarded as one of the best
and most inspirational mathematicians in the world. His insistence on absolutely
rigorous proofs equaled or exceeded even that of Cauchy, Abel and Dirichlet. His
students included Kovalevskaya, Frobenius, Mittag-Leffler, and several other famous
mathematicians. Bell called him "probably the greatest mathematical teacher of all
time." In 1873 Hermite called Weierstrass "the Master of all of us." Today he is often
called the "Father of Modern Analysis."

Weierstrass once wrote: "A mathematician who is not also something of a poet will
never be a complete mathematician."

George Boole (1815-1864) England

George Boole was a precocious child who impressed by teaching himself classical
languages, but was too poor to attend college and became an elementary school
teacher at age 16. He gradually developed his math skills; as a young man he
published a paper on the calculus of variations, and soon became one of the most
respected mathematicians in England despite having no formal training. He was noted
for work in symbolic logic, algebra and analysis, and also was apparently the first to
discover invariant theory. When he followed up Augustus de Morgan's earlier work in
symbolic logic, de Morgan insisted that Boole was the true master of that field, and
begged his friend to finally study mathematics at university. Boole couldn't afford to,
and had to be appointed Professor instead!

Although very few recognized its importance at the time, it is Boole's work in
Boolean algebra and symbolic logic for which he is now remembered; this work
inspired computer scientists like Claude Shannon. Boole's book An Investigation of
the Laws of Thought prompted Bertrand Russell to label him the "discoverer of pure
mathematics."

Boole once said "No matter how correct a mathematical theorem may appear to be,
one ought never to be satisfied that there was not something imperfect about it until it
also gives the impression of being beautiful."

Pafnuti Lvovich Chebyshev (1821-1894) Russia

Pafnuti Chebyshev (Pafnuty Tschebyscheff) was noted for work in probability,

number theory, approximation theory, integrals, the theory of equations, and
orthogonal polynomials. His famous theorems cover a diverse range; they include a
new version of the Law of Large Numbers, first rigorous proof of the Central Limit
Theorem, and an important result in integration of radicals first conjectured by Abel.
He invented the Chebyshev polynomials, which have very wide application; many
other theorems or concepts are also named after him. He did very important work with
prime numbers, proving that there is always a prime between any n and 2n, and
working with the zeta function before Riemann did. He made much progress with the
Prime Number Theorem, proving two distinct forms of that theorem, each incomplete
but in a different way. Chebyshev was very influential for Russian mathematics,
inspiring Andrei Markov and Aleksandr Lyapunov among others.

Chebyshev was also a premier applied mathematician and a renowned inventor; his
several inventions include the Chebyshev linkage, a mechanical device to convert
rotational motion to straight-line motion. He once wrote "To isolate mathematics from
the practical demands of the sciences is to invite the sterility of a cow shut away from
the bulls."
Arthur Cayley (1821-1895) England
Cayley was one of the most prolific mathematicians in history; a list of the branches
of mathematics he pioneered will seem like an exaggeration. In addition to being very
inventive, he was an excellent algorist; some considered him to be the greatest
mathematician of the late 19th century (an era that includes Weierstrass and
Poincar). Cayley was the essential founder of modern group theory, matrix algebra,
the theory of higher singularities, and higher-dimensional geometry (building on
Plcker's work and anticipating the ideas of Klein), as well as the theory of invariants.
Among his many important theorems are the Cayley-Hamilton Theorem, and Cayley's
Theorem itself (that any group is isomorphic to a subgroup of a symmetric group). He
extended Hamilton's quaternions and developed the octonions, but was still one of the
first to realize that these special algebras should be subsumed by general matrix
methods. He also did original research in combinatorics (e.g. enumeration of trees),
elliptic and Abelian functions, and projective geometry. One of his famous geometric
theorems is a generalization of Pascal's Mystic Hexagram result; another resulted in
an elegant proof of the Quadratic Reciprocity law.

Cayley may have been the least eccentric of the great mathematicians: In addition to
his life-long love of mathematics, he enjoyed hiking, painting, reading fiction, and had
a happy married life. He easily won Smith's Prize and Senior Wrangler at Cambridge,
but then worked as a lawyer for many years. He later became professor, and finished
his career in the limelight as President of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science. He and James Joseph Sylvester were a source of inspiration to each other.
These two, along with Charles Hermite, are considered the founders of the important
theory of invariants. Though applied first to algebra, the notion of invariants is useful
in many areas of mathematics.

Cayley once wrote: "As for everything else, so for a mathematical theory: beauty can
be perceived but not explained."

Charles Hermite (1822-1901) France

Hermite studied the works of Lagrange and Gauss from an early age and soon
developed an alternate proof of Abel's famous quintic impossibility result. He
attended the same college as Galois and also had trouble passing their examinations,
but soon became highly respected by Europe's best mathematicians for his significant
advances in analytic number theory, elliptic functions, and quadratic forms. Along
with Cayley and Sylvester, he founded the important theory of invariants. Hermite's
theory of transformation allowed him to connect analysis, algebra and number theory
in novel ways. He was a kindly modest man and an inspirational teacher. Among his
students was Poincar, who said of Hermite, "He never evokes a concrete image, yet
you soon perceive that the more abstract entities are to him like living creatures....
Methods always seemed to be born in his mind in some mysterious way." Hermite's
other famous students included Darboux, Borel, and Hadamard who wrote of "how
magnificent Hermite's teaching was, overflowing with enthusiasm for science, which
seemed to come to life in his voice and whose beauty he never failed to communicate
to us, since he felt it so much himself to the very depth of his being."

Although he and Abel had proved that the general quintic lacked algebraic solutions,
Hermite introduced an elliptic analog to the circular trigonometric functions and used
these to provide a general solution for the quintic equation. He developed the concept
of complex conjugate which is now ubiquitous in mathematical physics and matrix
theory. He was first to prove that the Stirling and Euler generalizations of the factorial
function are equivalent. He was first to note remarkable facts about Heegner numbers,
e.g.
e163 = 262537412640768743.9999999999992...
(Without computers he was able to calculate this number, including the twelve 9's to
the right of the decimal point.) Very many elegant concepts and theorems are named
after Hermite. Hermite's most famous result may be his intricate proof that e (along
with a broad class of related numbers) is transcendental. (Extending the proof
to was left to Lindemann, a matter of regret for historians, some of whom who
regard Hermite as the greatest mathematician of his era.)

Ferdinand Gotthold Max Eisenstein (1823-1852) Germany

Eisenstein was born into severe poverty and suffered health problems throughout his
short life, but was still one of the more significant mathematicians of his era. Today's
mathematicians who study Eisenstein are invariably amazed by his brilliance and
originality. He made revolutionary advances in number theory, algebra and analysis,
and was also a composer of music. He anticipated ring theory, developed a new basis
for elliptic functions, studied ternary quadratic forms, proved several theorems about
cubic and higher-degree reciprocity, discovered the notion of analytic covariant, and
much more.

Eisenstein was a young prodigy; he once wrote "As a boy of six I could understand
the proof of a mathematical theorem more readily than that meat had to be cut with
one's knife, not one's fork." Despite his early death, he is considered one of the
greatest number theorists ever. Gauss named Eisenstein, along with Newton and
Archimedes, as one of the three epoch-making mathematicians of history.

Leopold Kronecker (1823-1891) Germany

Kronecker was a businessman who pursued mathematics mainly as a hobby, but was
still very prolific, and one of the greatest theorem provers of his era. He explored a
wide variety of mathematics -- number theory, algebra, analysis, matrixes -- and
especially the interconnections between areas. Many concepts and theorems are
named after Kronecker; some of his theorems are frequently used as lemmas in
algebraic number theory, ergodic theory, and approximation theory. He provided key
ideas about foundations and continuity despite that he had philosophic objections to
irrational numbers and infinities. He also introduced the Theory of Divisors to avoid
Dedekind's Ideals; the importance of this and other work was only realized long after
his death. Kronecker's philosophy eventually led to the Constructivism and
Intuitionism of Brouwer and Poincar.

Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) Germany

Riemann was a phenomenal genius whose work was exceptionally deep, creative and
rigorous; he made revolutionary contributions in many areas of pure mathematics, and
also inspired the development of physics. He had poor physical health and died at an
early age, yet is still considered to be among the most productive mathematicians
ever. He made revolutionary advances in complex analysis, which he connected to
both topology and number theory. He applied topology to analysis, and analysis to
number theory, making revolutionary contributions to all three fields. He introduced
the Riemann integral which clarified analysis. He developed the theory of manifolds, a
term which he invented. Manifolds underpin topology. By imposing metrics on
manifolds Riemann invented differential geometry and took non-Euclidean geometry
far beyond his predecessors. Riemann's other masterpieces include tensor analysis, the
theory of functions, and a key relationship between some differential equation
solutions and hypergeometric series. His generalized notions of distance and curvature
described new possibilities for the geometry of space itself. Several important
theorems and concepts are named after Riemann, e.g. the Riemann-Roch Theorem, a
key connection among topology, complex analysis and algebraic geometry. He was so
prolific and original that some of his work went unnoticed (for example, Weierstrass
became famous for showing a nowhere-differentiable continuous function; later it was
found that Riemann had casually mentioned one in a lecture years earlier). Like his
mathematical peers (Gauss, Archimedes, Newton), Riemann was intensely interested
in physics. His theory unifying electricity, magnetism and light was supplanted by
Maxwell's theory; however modern physics, beginning with Einstein's relativity, relies
on Riemann's curvature tensor and other notions of the geometry of space.

Riemann's teacher was Carl Gauss, who helped steer the young genius towards pure
mathematics. Gauss selected "On the hypotheses that Lie at the Foundations of
Geometry" as Riemann's first lecture; with this famous lecture Riemann went far
beyond Gauss' initial effort in differential geometry, extended it to multiple
dimensions, and introduced the new and important theory of differential manifolds.
Five years later, to celebrate his election to the Berlin Academy, Riemann presented a
lecture "On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity," for which
"Number" he presented and partially proved an exact formula, albeit weirdly
complicated. Numerous papers have been written on the distribution of primes, but
Riemann's contribution is incomparable, despite that his Berlin Academy lecture was
his only paper ever on the topic, and number theory was far from his specialty. In the
lecture he posed the Hypothesis of Riemann's zeta function, needed for the missing
step in his proof. This Hypothesis is considered the most important and famous
unsolved problem in mathematics. (Asked what he would first do, if he were
magically awakened after centuries, David Hilbert replied "I would ask whether
anyone had proved the Riemann Hypothesis.") (.) was defined for convergent cases
in Euler's mini-bio, which Riemann extended via analytic continuation for all cases.
The Riemann Hypothesis "simply" states that in all solutions of (s = a+bi) = 0,
either s has real part a=1/2 or imaginary part b=0.

Despite his great creativity (Gauss praised Riemann's "gloriously fertile originality;"
another biographer called him "one of the most profound and imaginative
mathematicians of all time [and] a great philosopher"), Riemann once said: "If only I
had the theorems! Then I should find the proofs easily enough."

Henry John Stephen Smith (1826-1883) England

Henry Smith (born in Ireland) was one of the greatest number theorists, working
especially with elementary divisors; he also advanced the theory of quadratic forms. A
famous problem of Eisenstein was, given n and k, in how many different ways
can n be expressed as the sum of k squares? Smith made great progress on this
problem, subsuming special cases which had earlier been famous theorems. Although
most noted for number theory, he had great breadth. He did prize-winning work in
geometry, discovered the unique normal form for matrices which now bears his name,
anticipated specific fractals including the Cantor set, the Sierpinski gasket and the
Koch snowflake, and wrote a paper demonstrating the limitations of Riemann
integration.

Smith is sometimes called "the mathematician the world forgot." His paper on
integration could have led directly to measure theory and Lebesgue integration, but
was ignored for decades. The fractals he discovered are named after people who
rediscovered them. The Smith-Minkowski-Siegel mass formula of lattice theory
would be called just the Smith formula, but had to be rediscovered. And his solution
to the Eisenstein five-squares problem, buried in his voluminous writings on number
theory, was ignored: this "unsolved" problem was featured for a prize which
Minkowski won two decades later!

Henry Smith was an outstanding intellect with a modest and charming personality. He
was knowledgeable in a broad range of fields unrelated to mathematics; his University
even insisted he run for Parliament. His love of mathematics didn't depend on utility:
he once wrote "Pure mathematics: may it never be of any use to anyone."

Antonio Luigi Gaudenzio Giuseppe Cremona (1830-1903) Italy

Luigi Cremona made many important advances in analytic, synthetic and projective
geometry, especially in the transformations of algebraic curves and surfaces. Working
in mathematical physics, he developed the new field of graphical statics, and used it to
reinterpret some of Maxwell's results. He improved (or found brilliant proofs for)
several results of Steiner, especially in the field of cubic surfaces. (Some of this work
was done in collaboration with Rudolf Sturm.) He is especially noted for developing
the theory of Cremona transformations which have very wide application. He found a
generalization of Pascal's Mystic Hexagram. Cremona also played a political role in
establishing the modern Italian state and, as an excellent teacher, helped make Italy a
top center of mathematics.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) Scotland

Maxwell published a remarkable paper on the construction of novel ovals, at the age
of 14; his genius was soon renowned throughout Scotland, with the future Lord
Kelvin remarking that Maxwell's "lively imagination started so many hares that before
he had run one down he was off on another." He did a comprehensive analysis of
Saturn's rings, developed the important kinetic theory of gases, explored elasticity,
knot theory, soap bubbles, and more. He introduced the "Maxwell's Demon" as a
thought experiment for thermodynamics; his paper "On Governors" effectively
founded the field of cybernetics; he advanced the theory of color, and produced the
first color photograph. One Professor said of him, "there is scarcely a single topic that
he touched upon, which he did not change almost beyond recognition." Maxwell was
also a poet.

Maxwell did little of importance in pure mathematics, so his great creativity in

mathematical physics might not seem enough to qualify him for this list, although his
contribution to the kinetic theory of gases (which even led to the first estimate of
molecular sizes) would already be enough to make him one of the greatest physicists.
But then, in 1864 James Clerk Maxwell stunned the world by publishing the equations
of electricity and magnetism and showing that light itself is linked to the electro-
magnetic force. Richard Feynman considered this the most significant event of the
19th century (though others might give equal billing to Darwin's theory of evolution).
While Einstein, Newton, and Galileo may be the Top Three, Maxwell is a strong
candidate for "fourth greatest scientist ever." He has been called the "Father of
Modern Physics"; he ranks #24 on Hart's list of the Most Influential Persons in
History.

Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (1831-1916) Germany

Dedekind was one of the most innovative mathematicians ever; his clear expositions
and rigorous axiomatic methods had great influence. He made seminal contributions
to abstract algebra and algebraic number theory as well as mathematical foundations.
He was one of the first to pursue Galois Theory, making major advances there and
pioneering in the application of group theory to other branches of mathematics.
Dedekind also invented a system of fundamental axioms for arithmetic, worked in
probability theory and complex analysis, and invented prime partitions and modular
lattices. Dedekind may be most famous for his theory of ideals and rings; Kronecker
and Kummer had begun this, but Dedekind gave it a more abstract and productive
basis, which was developed further by Hilbert, Noether and Weil. Though the
term ring itself was coined by Hilbert, Dedekind introduced the terms module, field,
and ideal. Dedekind was far ahead of his time, so Noether became famous as the
creator of modern algebra; but she acknowledged her great predecessor, frequently
saying "It is all already in Dedekind."

Dedekind was concerned with rigor, writing "nothing capable of proof ought to be
accepted without proof." Before him, the real numbers, continuity, and infinity all
lacked rigorous definitions. The axioms Dedekind invented allow the integers and
rational numbers to be built and his Dedekind Cut then led to a rigorous and useful
definition of the real numbers. Dedekind was a key mentor for Georg Cantor: he
introduced the notion that a bijection implied equinumerosity, used this to define
infinitude (a set is infinite if equinumerous with its proper subset), and was first to
prove the Cantor-Bernstein Theorem, though he didn't publish his proof. (Because he
spent his career at a minor university, and neglected to publish some of his work,
Dedekind's contributions may be underestimated.)

Rudolf Friedrich Alfred Clebsch (1833-1872) Germany

Alfred Clebsch began in mathematical physics, working in hydrodynamics and

elasticity, but went on to become a pure mathematician of great brilliance and
versatility. He started with novel results in analysis, but went on to make important
advances to the invariant theory of Cayley and Sylvester (and Salmon and Aronhold),
to the algebraic geometry and elliptic functions of Abel and Jacobi, and to the
enumerative and projective geometries of Plcker. He was also one of the first to
build on Riemann's innovations. Clebsch developed new notions, e.g. Clebsch-
Aronhold symbolic notation and 'connex'; and proved key theorems about cubic
surfaces (for example, the Sylvester pentahedron conjecture) and other high-degree
curves, and representations (bijections) between surfaces. Some of his work, e.g.
Clebsch-Gordan coefficients which are important in physics, was done in
collaboration with Paul Gordan. For a while Clebsch was one of the top
mathematicians in Germany, and founded an important journal, but he died young. He
was a key teacher of Max Noether, Ferdinand Lindemann, Alexander Brill and
Gottlob Frege. Clebsch's great influence is suggested by the fact that his name
appeared as co-author on a text published 60 years after his death.

Eugenio Beltrami (1835-1899) Italy

Beltrami was an outstanding mathematician noted for differential geometry,

pseudospherical surfaces, transformation theory, differential calculus, and especially
for proving the equiconsistency of hyperbolic and Euclidean geometry for every
dimensionality; he achieved this by building on models of Cayley, Klein, Riemann
and Liouville. He was first to invent singular value decompositions. (Camille Jordan
and J.J. Sylvester each invented it independently a few years later.) Using insights
from non-Euclidean geometry, he did important mathematical work in a very wide
range of physics; for example he improved Green's theorem, generalized the Laplace
operator, studied gravitation in non-Euclidean space, and gave a new derivation of
Maxwell's equations.

Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan (1838-1921) France

Jordan was a great "universal mathematician", making revolutionary advances in

group theory, topology, and operator theory; and also doing important work in
differential equations, number theory, measure theory, matrix theory, combinatorics,
algebra and especially Galois theory. He worked as both mechanical engineer and
professor of analysis. Jordan is especially famous for the Jordan Closed Curve
Theorem of topology, a simple statement "obviously true" yet remarkably difficult to
prove. In measure theory he developed Peano-Jordan "content" and proved the Jordan
Decomposition Theorem. He also proved the Jordan-Holder Theorem of group theory,
invented the notion of homotopy, invented the Jordan Canonical Forms of matrix
theory, and supplied the first complete proof of Euler's Polyhedral Theorem, F+V =
E+2. Some consider Jordan second only to Weierstrass among great 19th-century
teachers; his work inspired such mathematicians as Klein, Lie and Borel.

Marius Sophus Lie (1842-1899) Norway

Lie was twenty-five years old before his interest in and aptitude for mathematics
became clear, but then did revolutionary work with continuous symmetry and
continuous transformation groups. These groups and the algebra he developed to
manipulate them now bear his name; they have major importance in the study of
differential equations. Lie sphere geometry is one result of Lie's fertile approach and
even led to a new approach for Apollonius' ancient problem about tangent circles. Lie
became a close friend and collaborator of Felix Klein early in their careers; their
methods of relating group theory to geometry were quite similar; but they eventually
fell out after Klein became (unfairly?) recognized as the superior of the two. Lie's
work wasn't properly appreciated in his own lifetime, but one later commentator was
"overwhelmed by the richness and beauty of the geometric ideas flowing from Lie's
work."

Jean Gaston Darboux (1842-1917) France

Darboux did outstanding work in geometry, differential geometry, analysis, function
theory, mathematical physics, and other fields, his ability "based on a rare
combination of geometrical fancy and analytical power." He devised the Darboux
integral, equivalent to Riemann's integral but simpler; developed a novel mapping
between (hyper-)sphere and (hyper-)plane; proved an important Envelope Theorem in
the calculus of variations; developed the field of infinitesimal geometry; and more.
Several important theorems are named after him including a generalization of Taylor
series, the foundational theorem of symplectic geometry, and the fact that "the image
of an interval is also an interval." He wrote the definitive textbook on differential
geometry; he was an excellent teacher, inspiring Borel, Cartan and others.

William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) England

Clifford was a versatile and talented mathematician who was among the first to
appreciate the work of both Riemann and Grassmann. He found new connections
between algebra, topology and non-Euclidean geometry. Combining Hamilton's
quaternions, Grassmann's exterior algebra, and his own geometric intuition and
understanding of physics, he developed biquaternions, and generalized this
to geometric algebra, which paralleled work by Klein. In addition to developing
theories, he also produced ingenious proofs; for example he was first to prove
Miquel's n-Circle Theorem, and did so with a purely geometric argument. Clifford is
especially famous for anticipating, before Einstein, that gravitation could be modeled
with a non-Euclidean space. He was a polymath; a talented teacher, noted
philosopher, and outstanding athlete. With his singular genius, Clifford would
probably have become one of the greatest mathematicians of his era had he not died at
age thirty-three.

Georg Cantor (1845-1918) Russia, Germany

Cantor did brilliant and important work early in his career, for example he greatly
advanced the Fourier-series uniqueness question which had intrigued Riemann. In his
explorations of that problem he was led to questions of set enumeration, and his
greatest invention: set theory. Cantor created modern Set Theory almost single-
handedly, defining cardinal numbers, well-ordering, ordinal numbers, and discovering
the Theory of Transfinite Numbers. He defined equality between cardinal numbers
based on the existence of a bijection, and was the first to demonstrate that the real
numbers have a higher cardinal number than the integers. (He also showed that the
rationals have the same cardinality as the integers; and that the reals have the same
cardinality as the points of N-space and as the power-set of the integers.) Although
there are infinitely many distinct transfinite numbers, Cantor conjectured that C, the
cardinality of the reals, was the second smallest transfinite number. This Continuum
Hypothesis was included in Hilbert's famous List of Problems, and was partly
resolved many years later: Cantor's Continuum Hypothesis is an "Undecidable
Statement" of Set Theory.

Cantor's revolutionary set theory attracted vehement opposition from Poincar ("grave
disease"), Kronecker (Cantor was a "charlatan" and "corrupter of youth"),
Wittgenstein ("laughable nonsense"), and even theologians. David Hilbert had kinder
words for it: "The finest product of mathematical genius and one of the supreme
achievements of purely intellectual human activity" and addressed the critics with "no
one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created." Cantor's own attitude
was expressed with "The essence of mathematics lies in its freedom." Cantor's set
theory laid the theoretical basis for the measure theory developed by Borel and
Lebesgue. Cantor's invention of modern set theory is now considered one of the most
important and creative achievements in modern mathematics.

Cantor demonstrated much breadth (he even involved himself in the Shakespeare
authorship controversy!). In addition to his set theory and key discoveries in the
theory of trigonometric series, he made advances in number theory, and gave the
modern definition of irrational numbers. His Cantor set was the early inspiration for
fractals. Cantor was also an excellent violinist. He once wrote "In mathematics the art
of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it."

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) Germany

Gottlob Frege developed the first complete and fully rigorous system of pure logic;
his work has been called the greatest advance in logic since Aristotle. He introduced
the essential notion of quantifiers; he distinguished terms from predicates, and simple
predicates from 2nd-level predicates. From his second-order logic he defined
numbers, and derived the axioms of arithmetic with what is now called Frege's
Theorem. His work was largely underappreciated at the time, partly because of his
clumsy notation, partly because his system was published with a flaw (Russell's
antinomy). He and Cantor were the era's outstanding foundational theorists;
unfortunately their relationship with each other became bitter. Despite all this, Frege's
work influenced Peano, Russell, Wittgenstein and others; and he is now often called
the greatest mathematical logician ever.
Frege also did work in geometry and differential equations; and, in order to construct
the real numbers with his set theory, proved an important new theorem of group
theory. He was also an important philosopher, and wrote "Every good mathematician
is at least half a philosopher, and every good philosopher is at least half a
mathematician."

Ferdinand Georg Frobenius (1849-1917) Germany

Frobenius did significant work in a very broad range of mathematics, was an

outstanding algorist, and had several successful students including Edmund Landau,
Issai Schur, and Carl Siegel. In addition to developing the theory of abstract groups,
Frobenius did important work in number theory, differential equations, elliptic
functions, biquadratic forms, matrixes, and algebra. He was first to actually prove the
important Cayley-Hamilton Theorem, and first to extend the Sylow Theorems to
abstract groups. He anticipated the important and imaginative Prime Density
Theorem, though he didn't prove its general case. Although he modestly left his name
off the "Cayley-Hamilton Theorem," many lemmas and concepts are named after him,
including Frobenius conjugacy class, Frobenius reciprocity, Frobenius manifolds, the
Frobenius-Schur Indicator, etc. He is most noted for his character theory, a
revolutionary advance which led to the representation theory of groups, and has
applications in modern physics. The middle-aged Frobenius invented this after the
aging Dedekind asked him for help in solving a key algebraic factoring problem.

Christian Felix Klein (1849-1925) Germany

Klein's key contribution was an application of invariant theory to unify geometry with
group theory. This radical new view of geometry inspired Sophus Lie's Lie groups,
and also led to the remarkable unification of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries
which is probably Klein's most famous result. Klein did other work in function theory,
providing links between several areas of mathematics including number theory, group
theory, hyperbolic geometry, and abstract algebra. His Klein's Quartic curve and
popularly-famous Klein's bottle were among several useful results from his new
approaches to groups and higher-dimensional geometries and equations. Klein did
significant work in mathematical physics, e.g. writing about gyroscopes. He facilitated
David Hilbert's early career, publishing his controversial Finite Basis Theorem and
declaring it "without doubt the most important work on general algebra [the leading
German journal] ever published."
Klein is also famous for his book on the icosahedron, reasoning from its symmetries
to develop the elliptic modular and automorphic functions which he used to solve the
general quintic equation. He formulated a "grand uniformization theorem" about
automorphic functions but suffered a health collapse before completing the proof. His
focus then changed to teaching; he devised a mathematics curriculum for secondary
schools which had world-wide influence. Klein once wrote "... mathematics has been
most advanced by those who distinguished themselves by intuition rather than by
rigorous proofs."

Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925) England

Heaviside dropped out of high school to teach himself telegraphy and

electromagnetism, becoming first a telegraph operator but eventually perhaps the
greatest electrical engineer ever. He developed transmission line theory, invented the
coaxial cable, predicted Cherenkov radiation, described the use of the ionosphere in
radio transmission, and much more. Some of his insights anticipated parts of special
relativity, and he was first to speculate about gravitational waves. For his
revolutionary discoveries in electromagnetism and mathematics, Heaviside became
the first winner of the Faraday Medal.

As an applied mathematician, Heaviside developed operational calculus (an important

shortcut for solving differential equations); developed vector analysis independently
of Grassmann; and demonstrated the usage of complex numbers for electro-magnetic
equations. Four of the famous Maxwell's Equations are in fact due to Oliver
Heaviside, Maxwell having presented a more cumbersome version. Although one of
the greatest applied mathematicians, Heaviside is omitted from the Top 100 because
he didn't provide proofs for his methods. Of this Heaviside said, "Should I refuse a
good dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion?"

Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (1850-1891) Russia

Sofia Kovalevskaya (aka Sonya Kowalevski; ne Korvin-Krukovskaya) was initially

self-taught, sought out Weierstrass as her teacher, and was later considered the
greatest female mathematician ever (before Emmy Noether). She was influential in
the development of Russian mathematics. Kovalevskaya studied Abelian integrals and
partial differential equations, producing the important Cauchy-Kovalevsky Theorem;
her application of complex analysis to physics inspired Poincar and others. Her most
famous work was the solution to the Kovalevskaya top, which has been called a
"genuine highlight of 19th-century mathematics." Other than the simplest cases solved
by Euler and Lagrange, exact ("integrable") solutions to the equations of motion were
unknown, so Kovalevskaya received fame and a rich prize when she solved
the Kovalevskaya top. Her ingenious solution might be considered a mere curiosity,
but since it is still the only post-Lagrange physical motion problem for which an
"integrable" solution has been demonstrated, it remains an important textbook
example. Kovalevskaya once wrote "It is impossible to be a mathematician without
being a poet in soul." She was also a noted playwright.

Jules Henri Poincar (1854-1912) France

Poincar founded the theory of algebraic (combinatorial) topology, and is sometimes
called the "Father of Topology" (a title also used for Euler and Brouwer). He also did
brilliant work in several other areas of mathematics; he was one of the most creative
mathematicians ever, and the greatest mathematician of the Constructivist
("intuitionist") style. He published hundreds of papers on a variety of topics and might
have become the most prolific mathematician ever, but he died at the height of his
powers. Poincar was clumsy and absent-minded; like Galois, he was almost denied
admission to French University, passing only because at age 17 he was already far too
famous to flunk.

In addition to his topology, Poincar laid the foundations of homology; he discovered

automorphic functions (a unifying foundation for the trigonometric and elliptic
functions), and essentially founded the theory of periodic orbits; he made major
advances in the theory of differential equations. He is credited with partial solution of
Hilbert's 22nd Problem. Several important results carry his name, for example the
famous Poincar Recurrence Theorem, which almost seems to contradict the Second
Law of Thermodynamics. Poincar is especially noted for effectively discovering
chaos theory, and for posing Poincar's Conjecture; that conjecture was one of the
most famous unsolved problems in mathematics for an entire century, and can be
explained without equations to a layman. The Conjecture is that all "simply-
connected" closed manifolds are topologically equivalent to "spheres"; it is directly
relevant to the possible topology of our universe. Recently Grigori Perelman proved
Poincar's conjecture, and is eligible for the first Million Dollar math prize in history.

As were most of the greatest mathematicians, Poincar was intensely interested in

physics. He made revolutionary advances in fluid dynamics and celestial motions; he
anticipated Minkowski space and much of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity
(including the famous equation E = mc2). Poincar also found time to become a
famous popular writer of philosophy, writing, "Mathematics is the art of giving the
same name to different things;" and "A [worthy] mathematician experiences in his
work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature;"
and "If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were
not worth knowing, life would not be worth living." With his fame, Poincar helped
the world recognize the importance of the new physical theories of Einstein and
Planck.

Andrei Andreyevich Markov (1856-1922) Russia

Markov did excellent work in a broad range of mathematics including analysis,

number theory, algebra, continued fractions, approximation theory, and especially
probability theory: it has been said that his accuracy and clarity transformed
probability theory into one of the most perfected areas of mathematics. Markov is best
known as the founder of the theory of stochastic processes. In addition to his Ergodic
Theorem about such processes, theorems named after him include the Gauss-Markov
Theorem of statistics, the Riesz-Markov Theorem of functional analysis, and the
Markov Brothers' Inequality in the theory of equations. Markov was also noted for his
politics, mocking Czarist rule, and insisting that he be excommunicated from the
Russian Orthodox Church when Tolstoy was.

Markov had a son, also named Andrei Andreyevich, who was also an outstanding
mathematician of great breadth. Among the son's achievements was Markov's
Theorem, which helps relate the theories of braids and knots to each other.

Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932) Italy

Giuseppe Peano is one of the most under-appreciated of all great mathematicians. He

started his career by proving a fundamental theorem in differential equations,
developed practical solution methods for such equations, discovered a continuous
space-filling curve (then thought impossible), and laid the foundations of abstract
operator theory. He also produced the best calculus textbook of his time, was first to
produce a correct (non-paradoxical) definition of surface area, proved an important
theorem about Dirichlet functions, did important work in topology, and much more.
Much of his work was unappreciated and left for others to rediscover: he anticipated
many of Borel's and Lebesgue's results in measure theory, and several concepts and
theorems of analysis. He was the champion of counter-examples, and found flaws in
published proofs of several important theorems.
Most of the preceding work was done when Peano was quite young. Later he focused
on mathematical foundations, and this is the work for which he is most famous. He
developed rigorous definitions and axioms for set theory, as well as most of the
notation of modern set theory. He was first to define arithmetic (and then the rest of
mathematics) in terms of set theory. Peano was first to note that some proofs required
an explicit Axiom of Choice (although it was Ernst Zermelo who explicitly
formulated that Axiom a few years later).

Despite his early show of genius, Peano's quest for utter rigor may have detracted
from his influence in mainstream mathematics. Moreover, since he modestly
referenced work by predecessors like Dedekind, Peano's huge influence in axiomatic
theory is often overlooked. Yet Bertrand Russell reports that it was from Peano that he
first learned that a single-member set is not the same as its element; this fact is now
taught in elementary school.

Samuel Giuseppe Vito Volterra (1860-1946) Italy

Vito Volterra founded the field of functional analysis ('functions of lines'), and used it
to extend the work of Hamilton and Jacobi to more areas of mathematical physics. He
developed cylindrical waves and the theory of integral equations. He worked in
mechanics, developed the theory of crystal dislocations, and was first to propose the
use of helium in balloons. Eventually he turned to mathematical biology and made
notable contributions to that field, e.g. predator-prey equations.

David Hilbert (1862-1943) Prussia, Germany

Hilbert, often considered the greatest mathematician of the 20th century, was
unequaled in many fields of mathematics, including axiomatic theory, invariant
theory, algebraic number theory, class field theory and functional analysis. He proved
many new theorems, including the fundamental theorems of algebraic manifolds, and
also discovered simpler proofs for older theorems. His examination of calculus led
him to the invention of Hilbert space, considered one of the key concepts of
functional analysis and modern mathematical physics. His Nullstellensatz Theorem
laid the foundation of algebraic geometry. He was a founder of fields like
metamathematics and modern logic. He was also the founder of the "Formalist"
school which opposed the "Intuitionism" of Kronecker and Brouwer. He developed a
new system of definitions and axioms for geometry, replacing the 2200 year-old
system of Euclid. As a young Professor he proved his Finite Basis Theorem, now
regarded as one of the most important results of general algebra. His mentor, Paul
Gordan, had sought the proof for many years, and rejected Hilbert's proof as non-
constructive. Later, Hilbert produced the first constructive proof of the Finite Basis
Theorem, as well. In number theory, he proved Waring's famous conjecture which is
now known as the Hilbert-Waring Theorem.

Any one man can only do so much, so the greatest mathematicians should help
nurture their colleagues. Hilbert provided a famous List of 23 Unsolved Problems,
which inspired and directed the development of 20th-century mathematics. Hilbert
was warmly regarded by his colleagues and students, and contributed to the careers of
several great mathematicians and physicists including Georg Cantor, Hermann
Minkowski, Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann, Emmy Noether, Alonzo Church,
and Albert Einstein.

Eventually Hilbert turned to physics and made key contributions to classical and
quantum physics and to general relativity. He published the Einstein Field
Equations independently of Einstein (though his writings make clear he treats this as
strictly Einstein's invention).

Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909) Lithuania, Germany

Minkowski won a prestigious prize at age 18 for reconstructing Eisenstein's

enumeration of the ways to represent integers as the sum of five squares. (The Paris
Academy overlooked that Smith had already published a solution for this!) His proof
built on quadratic forms and continued fractions and eventually led him to the new
field of Geometric Number Theory, for which Minkowski's Convex Body Theorem (a
sort of pigeonhole principle) is often called the Fundamental Theorem. Minkowski
was also a major figure in the development of functional analysis. With his "question
mark function" and "sausage," he was also a pioneer in the study of fractals. Several
other important results are named after him, e.g. the Hasse-Minkowski Theorem. He
was first to extend the Separating Axis Theorem to multiple dimensions. Minkowski
was one of Einstein's teachers, and also a close friend of David Hilbert. He is
particularly famous for building on Poincar's work to invent Minkowski space to deal
with Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. This not only provided a better
explanation for the Special Theory, but helped inspire Einstein toward his General
Theory. Minkowski said that his "views of space and time ... have sprung from the
soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength.... Henceforth space by
itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind
of union of the two will preserve an independent reality."
Jacques Salomon Hadamard (1865-1963) France

Hadamard made revolutionary advances in several different areas of mathematics,

especially complex analysis, analytic number theory, differential geometry, partial
differential equations, symbolic dynamics, chaos theory, matrix theory, and Markov
chains; for this reason he is sometimes called the "Last Universal Mathematician." He
also made contributions to physics. One of the most famous results in mathematics is
the Prime Number Theorem, that there are approximately n/log n primes less than n.
This result was conjectured by Legendre and Gauss, attacked cleverly by Riemann
and Chebyshev, and finally, by building on Riemann's work, proved by Hadamard and
Vallee-Poussin. (Hadamard's proof is considered more elegant and useful than Vallee-
Poussin's.) Several other important theorems are named after Hadamard (e.g. his
Inequality of Determinants), and some of his theorems are named after others
(Hadamard was first to prove Brouwer's Fixed-Point Theorem for arbitrarily many
dimensions). Hadamard was also influential in promoting others' work: He is noted
for his survey of Poincar's work; his staunch defense of the Axiom of Choice led to
the acceptance of Zermelo's work. Hadamard was a successful teacher, with Andr
Weil, Maurice Frchet, and others acknowledging him as key inspiration. Like many
great mathematicians he emphasized the importance of intuition, writing "The object
of mathematical rigor is to sanction and legitimize the conquests of intuition, and
there never was any other object for it."

Felix Hausdorff (1868-1942) Germany

Hausdorff had diverse interests: he composed music and wrote poetry, studied
astronomy, wrote on philosophy, but eventually focused on mathematics, where he
did important work in several fields including set theory, measure theory, functional
analysis, and both algebraic and point-set topology. His studies in set theory led him
to the Hausdorff Maximal Principle, and the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis; his
concepts now called Hausdorff measure and Hausdorff dimension led to geometric
measure theory and fractal geometry; his Hausdorff paradox led directly to the famous
Banach-Tarski paradox; he introduced other seminal concepts, e.g. Hausdorff
Distance. He also worked in analysis, solving the Hausdorff moment problem.

As Jews in Hitler's Germany, Hausdorff and his wife committed suicide rather than
submit to internment.
lie Joseph Cartan (1869-1951) France

Cartan worked in the theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, applying methods of
topology, geometry and invariant theory to Lie theory, and classifying all Lie groups.
This work was so significant that Cartan, rather than Lie, is considered the most
important developer of the theory of Lie groups. Using Lie theory and ideas like
his Method of Prolongation he advanced the theories of differential equations and
differential geometry. Cartan introduced several new concepts including algebraic
group, exterior differential forms, spinors, moving frames, Cartan connections. He
proved several important theorems, e.g. Schlfli's Conjecture about embedding
Riemann metrics, and fundamental theorems about symmetric Riemann spaces. He
made a key contribution to Einstein's general relativity, based on what is now called
Riemann-Cartan geometry. Cartan's methods were so original as to be fully
appreciated only recently; many now consider him to be one of the greatest
mathematicians of his era. In 1938 Weyl called him "the greatest living master in
differential geometry."

Flix douard Justin mile Borel (1871-1956) France

Borel exhibited great talent while still in his teens, soon practically founded modern
measure theory, and received several honors and prizes. Among his famous theorems
is the Heine-Borel Covering Theorem. He also did important work in several other
fields of mathematics, including divergent series, quasi-analytic functions, differential
equations, number theory, complex analysis, theory of functions, geometry,
probability theory, and game theory. Relating measure theory to probabilities, he
introduced concepts like normal numbers and the Borel-Kolmogorov paradox. He
also did work in relativity and the philosophy of science. He anticipated the concept
of chaos, inspiring Poincar. Borel combined great creativity with strong analytic
power; however he was especially interested in applications, philosophy, and
education, so didn't pursue the tedium of rigorous development and proof; for this
reason his great importance as a theorist is often underestimated. Borel was decorated
for valor in World War I, entered politics between the Wars, and joined the French
Resistance during World War II.

Tullio Levi-Civita (1873-1941) Italy

Levi-Civita was noted for strong geometrical intuition, and excelled at both pure
mathematics and mathematical physics. He worked in analytic number theory,
differential equations, tensor calculus, hydrodynamics, celestial mechanics, and the
theory of stability. Several inventions are named after him, e.g. the non-archimedean
Levi-Civita field, the Levi-Civita parallelogramoid, and the Levi-Civita symbol. His
work inspired all three of the greatest 20th-century mathematical physicists, laying
key mathematical groundwork for Weyl's unified field theory, Einstein's relativity,
and Dirac's quantum theory.

Henri Lon Lebesgue (1875-1941) France

Lebesgue did groundbreaking work in real analysis, advancing Borel's measure

theory; his Lebesgue integral superseded the Riemann integral and improved the
theoretical basis for Fourier analysis. Several important theorems are named after him,
e.g. the Lebesgue Differentiation Theorem and Lebesgue's Number Lemma. He did
important work on Hilbert's 19th Problem, and in the Jordan Curve Theorem for
higher dimensions. In 1916, the Lebesgue integral was compared "with a modern
Krupp gun, so easily does it penetrate barriers which were impregnable." In addition
to his seminal contributions to measure theory and Fourier analysis, Lebesgue made
significant contributions in several other fields including complex analysis, topology,
set theory, potential theory, dimension theory, and calculus of variations.

Edmund Georg Hermann Landau (1877-1938) Germany

Landau was one of the most prolific and influential number theorists ever; he was also
adept at complex function theory. He was especially keen at finding very simple
proofs: one of his most famous results was a simpler proof of Hadamard's prime
number theorem; being simpler it was also more fruitful and led to Landau's Prime
Ideal Theorem. In addition to simpler proofs of existing theorems, new theorems by
Landau include important facts about Riemann's Hypothesis; facts about Dirichlet
series; key lemmas of analysis; a result in Waring's Problem; a generalization of the
Little Picard Theorem; a partial proof of Gauss' conjecture about the density of classes
of composite numbers; and key results in the theory of pecking orders, e.g. every
flock has at least one "king," never exactly two kings, and exactly one king only if that
king is an "emperor." (If every chicken except X is pecked either by X or someone
pecked by X, then X is defined as a "King." Landau's pecking orders are now
described as round-robin tournaments.) Landau was also the inventor of big-O
notation. Hardy wrote that no one was ever more passionately devoted to mathematics
than Landau.
Godfrey Harold Hardy (1877-1947) England

Hardy was an extremely prolific research mathematician who did important work in
analysis (especially the theory of integration), number theory, global analysis, and
analytic number theory. He proved several important theorems about numbers, for
example that Riemann's zeta function has infinitely many zeros with real part 1/2. He
was also an excellent teacher and wrote several excellent textbooks, as well as a
famous treatise on the mathematical mind. He abhorred applied mathematics, treating
mathematics as a creative art; yet his work has found application in population
genetics, cryptography, thermodynamics and particle physics.

Hardy is especially famous (and important) for his encouragement of and

collaboration with Ramanujan. Hardy provided rigorous proofs for several of
Ramanujan's conjectures, including Ramanujan's "Master Theorem" of analysis.
Among other results of this collaboration was the Hardy-Ramanujan Formula for
partition enumeration, which Hardy later used as a model to develop the Hardy-
Littlewood Circle Method; Hardy then used this method to prove stronger versions of
the Hilbert-Waring Theorem, and in prime number theory; the method has continued
to be a very productive tool in analytic number theory. Hardy was also a mentor to
Norbert Wiener, another famous prodigy.

Hardy once wrote "A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If
his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas."
He also wrote "Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for
ugly mathematics."

Ren Maurice Frchet (1878-1973) France

Maurice Frchet introduced the concept of metric spaces (though not using that term);
and also made major contributions to point-set topology. Building on work of
Hadamard and Volterra, he generalized Banach spaces to use new (non-normed)
metrics and proved that many important theorems still applied in these more general
spaces. For this work, and his invention of the notion of compactness, Frchet is
called the Founder of the Theory of Abstract Spaces. He also did important work in
probability theory and in analysis; for example he proved the Riesz Representation
Theorem the same year Riesz did. Many theorems and inventions are named after
him, for example Frchet Distance, which has many applications in applied math, e.g.
protein structure analysis.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Germany, Switzerland, U.S.A.

Albert Einstein was unquestionably one of the two greatest physicists in all of history.
The atomic theory achieved general acceptance only after Einstein's 1905 paper which
showed that atoms' discreteness explained Brownian motion. Another 1905 paper
introduced the famous equation E = mc2; yet Einstein published other papers that
same year, two of which were more important and influential than either of the two
just mentioned. No wonder that physicists speak of the Miracle Year without
bothering to qualify it as Einstein's Miracle Year! (Before his Miracle Year, Einstein
had been a mediocre undergraduate, and held minor jobs including patent examiner.)
Altogether Einstein published at least 300 books or papers on physics. For example, in
a 1917 paper he anticipated the principle of the laser. Also, sometimes in
collaboration with Leo Szilard, he was co-inventor of several devices, including a
gyroscopic compass, hearing aid, automatic camera and, most famously, the Einstein-
Szilard refrigerator. He became a very famous and influential public figure. (For
example, it was his letter that led Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project.) Among
his many famous quotations is: "The search for truth is more precious than its
possession."

Einstein is most famous for his Special and General Theories of Relativity, but he
should be considered the key pioneer of Quantum Theory as well, drawing inferences
from Planck's work that no one else dared to draw. Indeed it was his articulation of the
quantum principle in a 1905 paper which has been called "the most revolutionary
sentence written by a physicist of the twentieth century." Einstein's discovery of the
photon in that paper led to his only Nobel Prize; years later, he was first to call
attention to the "spooky" nature of quantum entanglement. Einstein was also first to
call attention to a flaw in Weyl's earliest unified field theory. But despite the
importance of his other contributions it is Einstein's General Theory which is his most
profound contribution. Minkowski had developed a flat 4-dimensional space-time to
cope with Einstein's Special Theory; but it was Einstein who had the vision to add
curvature to that space to describe acceleration.

Einstein certainly has the breadth, depth, and historical importance to qualify for this
list; but his genius and significance were not in the field of pure mathematics. (He
acknowledged his limitation, writing "I admire the elegance of your [Levi-Civita's]
method of computation; it must be nice to ride through these fields upon the horse of
true mathematics while the like of us have to make our way laboriously on foot.")
Einstein was a mathematician, however; he pioneered the application of tensor
calculus to physics and invented the Einstein summation notation. That Einstein's
equation explained a discrepancy in Mercury's orbit was a discovery made by Einstein
personally (a discovery he described as 'joyous excitement' that gave him heart
palpitations). He composed a beautiful essay about mathematical proofs using the
Theorem of Menelaus as his example. Certainly he belongs on a Top 100 List: his
extreme greatness overrides his focus away from math. Einstein ranks #10 on Michael
Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His General Theory of
Relativity has been called the most creative and original scientific theory ever.
Einstein once wrote "... the creative principle resides in mathematics [; thus] I hold it
true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed."

Oswald Veblen (1880-1960) U.S.A.

Oswald Veblen's first mathematical achievement was a novel system of axioms for
geometry. He also worked in topology; projective geometry; differential geometry
(where he was first to introduce the concept of differentiable manifold); ordinal theory
(where he introduced the Veblen hierarchy); and mathematical physics where he
worked with spinors and relativity. He developed a new theory of ballistics during
World War I and helped plan the first American computer during World War II. His
famous theorems include the Veblen-Young Theorem (an important algebraic fact
about projective spaces); a proof of the Jordan Curve Theorem more rigorous than
Jordan's; and Veblen's Theorem itself (a generalization of Euler's result about cycles
in graphs). Veblen, a nephew of the famous economist Thorstein Veblen, was an
important teacher; his famous students included Alonzo Church, John W. Alexander,
Robert L. Moore, and J.H.C. Whitehead. He was also a key figure in establishing
Princeton's Institute of Advanced Study; the first five mathematicians he hired for the
Institute were Einstein, von Neumann, Weyl, J.W. Alexander and Marston Morse.

Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (1881-1966) Holland

Brouwer is often considered the "Father of Topology;" among his important theorems
were the Fixed Point Theorem, the "Hairy Ball" Theorem, the Jordan-Brouwer
Separation Theorem, and the Invariance of Dimension. He developed the method of
simplicial approximations, important to algebraic topology; he also did work in
geometry, set theory, measure theory, complex analysis and the foundations of
mathematics. He was first to anticipate forms like the Lakes of Wada, leading
eventually to other measure-theory "paradoxes." Several great mathematicians,
including Weyl, were inspired by Brouwer's work in topology.
Brouwer is most famous as the founder of Intuitionism, a philosophy of mathematics
in sharp contrast to Hilbert's Formalism, but Brouwer's philosophy also involved
ethics and aesthetics and has been compared with those of Schopenhauer and
Nietzsche. Part of his mathematics thesis was rejected as "... interwoven with some
kind of pessimism and mystical attitude to life which is not mathematics ..." As a
young man, Brouwer spent a few years to develop topology, but once his great talent
was demonstrated and he was offered prestigious professorships, he devoted himself
to Intuitionism, and acquired a reputation as eccentric and self-righteous.

Intuitionism has had a significant influence, although few strict adherents. Since only
constructive proofs are permitted, strict adherence would slow mathematical work.
This didn't worry Brouwer who once wrote: "The construction itself is an art, its
application to the world an evil parasite."

Amalie Emmy Noether (1882-1935) Germany

Noether was an innovative researcher who was considered the greatest master of
abstract algebra ever; her advances included a new theory of ideals, the inverse Galois
problem, and the general theory of commutative rings. She originated novel reasoning
methods, especially one based on "chain conditions," which advanced invariant theory
and abstract algebra; her insistence on generalization led to a unified theory of
modules and Noetherian rings. Her approaches tended to unify disparate areas
(algebra, geometry, topology, logic) and led eventually to modern category theory.
Her invention of Betti homology groups led to algebraic topology, and thus
revolutionized topology.

Noether's work has found various applications in physics, and she made direct
advances in mathematical physics herself. Noether's Theorem establishing that certain
symmetries imply conservation laws has been called the most important Theorem in
physics since the Pythagorean Theorem. Several other important theorems are named
after her, e.g. Noether's Normalization Lemma, which provided an important new
proof of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz. Noether was an unusual and inspiring teacher; her
successful students included Emil Artin, Max Deuring, Jacob Levitzki, etc. She was
generous with students and colleagues, even allowing them to claim her work as their
own. Noether was close friends with the other greatest mathematicians of her
generation: Hilbert, von Neumann, and Weyl. Weyl once said he was embarrassed to
accept the famous Professorship at Gttingen because Noether was his "superior as a
mathematician." Emmy Noether is considered the greatest female mathematician ever.
Waclaw Sierpinski (1882-1969) Poland

Sierpinski won a gold medal as an undergraduate by making a major improvement to

a famous theorem by Gauss about lattice points inside a circle. He went on to do
important research in set theory, number theory, point set topology, the theory of
functions, and fractals. He was extremely prolific, producing 50 books and over 700
papers. He was a Polish patriot: he contributed to the development of Polish
mathematics despite that his land was controlled by Russians or Nazis for most of his
life. He worked as a code-breaker during the Polish-Soviet War, helping to break
Soviet ciphers.

Sierpinski was first to prove Tarski's remarkable conjecture that the Generalized
Continuum Hypothesis implies the Axiom of Choice. He developed three famous
fractals: a space-filling curve; the Sierpinski gasket; and the Sierpinski carpet, which
covers the plane but has area zero and has found application in antennae design. Borel
had proved that almost all real numbers are "normal" but Sierpinski was the first to
actually display a number which is normal in every base. He proved the existence of
infinitely many Sierpinski numbers having the property that, e.g. (785572n+1) is
composite number for every natural number n. It remains an unsolved problem (likely
to be defeated soon with high-speed computers) whether 78557 is the smallest such
"Sierpinski number."

Solomon Lefschetz (1884-1972) Russia, U.S.A.

Lefschetz was born in Russia, educated as an engineer in France, moved to U.S.A.,

was severely handicapped in an accident, and then switched to pure mathematics. He
was a key founder of algebraic topology, even coining the word topology, and
pioneered the application of topology to algebraic geometry. Starting from Poincar's
work, he developed Lefschetz duality and used it to derive conclusions about fixed
points in topological mappings. The Lefschetz Fixed-point Theorem left Brouwer's
famous result as just a special case. His Picard-Lefschetz theory eventually led to the
proof of the Weil conjectures. Lefschetz also did important work in algebraic
geometry, non-linear differential equations, and control theory. As a teacher he was
noted for a combative style. Preferring intuition over rigor, he once told a student who
had improved on one of Lefschetz's proofs: "Don't come to me with your pretty
proofs. We don't bother with that baby stuff around here."
George David Birkhoff (1884-1984) U.S.A.

Birkhoff is one of the greatest native-born American mathematicians ever, and did
important work in many fields. There are several significant theorems named after
him: the Birkhoff-Grothendieck Theorem is an important result about vector bundles;
Birkhoff's Theorem is an important result in algebra; and Birkhoff's Ergodic Theorem
is a key result in statistical mechanics which has since been applied to many other
fields. His Poincar-Birkhoff Fixed Point Theorem is especially important in celestial
mechanics, and led to instant worldwide fame: the great Poincar had described it as
most important, but had been unable to complete the proof. In algebraic graph theory,
he invented Birkhoff's chromatic polynomial (while trying to prove the four-color
map theorem); he proved a significant result in general relativity which implied the
existence of black holes; he also worked in differential equations and number theory;
he authored an important text on dynamical systems. Like several of the great
mathematicians of that era, Birkhoff developed his own set of axioms for geometry; it
is his axioms that are often found in today's high school texts. Birkhoff's intellectual
interests went beyond mathematics; he once wrote "The transcendent importance of
love and goodwill in all human relations is shown by their mighty beneficent effect
upon the individual and society."

Hermann Klaus Hugo (Peter) Weyl (1885-1955) Germany, U.S.A.

Weyl studied under Hilbert and became one of the premier mathematicians of the 20th
century. His discovery of gauge invariance and notion of Riemann surfaces form the
basis of modern physics. He excelled at many fields including integral equations,
harmonic analysis, analytic number theory, Diophantine approximations, and the
foundations of mathematics, but he is most respected for his revolutionary advances in
geometric function theory (e.g., differentiable manifolds), the theory of compact
groups (incl. representation theory), and theoretical physics (e.g., Weyl tensor, gauge
field theory and invariance). For a while, Weyl was a disciple of Brouwer's
Intuitionism and helped advance that doctrine, but he eventually found it too
restrictive. Weyl was also a very influential figure in all three major fields of 20th-
century physics: relativity, unified field theory and quantum mechanics. Because of
his contributions to Schrdinger, many think the latter's famous result should be
named Schrdinger-Weyl Wave Equation.

Vladimir Vizgin wrote "To this day, Weyl's [unified field] theory astounds all in the
depth of its ideas, its mathematical simplicity, and the elegance of its realization."
Weyl once wrote: "My work always tried to unite the Truth with the Beautiful, but
when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the Beautiful."

John Edensor Littlewood (1885-1977) England

John Littlewood was a very prolific researcher. (This fact is obscured somewhat in
that many papers were co-authored with Hardy, and their names were always given in
alphabetic order.) The tremendous span of his career is suggested by the fact that he
won Smith's Prize (and Senior Wrangler) in 1905 and the Copley Medal in 1958. He
specialized in analysis and analytic number theory but also did important work in
combinatorics, Fourier theory, Diophantine approximations, differential equations,
and other fields. He also did important work in practical engineering, creating a
method for accurate artillery fire during the First World War, and developing
equations for radio and radar in preparation for the Second War. He worked with the
Prime Number Theorem and Riemann's Hypothesis; and proved the unexpected fact
that Chebyshev's bias, and Li(x)>(x), while true for most, and all but very large,
numbers, are violated infinitely often. Some of his work was elementary, e.g. his
elegant proof that a cube cannot be dissected into unequal cubes; but most of his
results were too specialized to state here, e.g. his widely-applied 4/3 Inequality which
guarantees that certain bimeasures are finite, and which inspired one of
Grothendieck's most famous results. Hardy once said that his friend was "the man
most likely to storm and smash a really deep and formidable problem; there was no
one else who could command such a combination of insight, technique and power."
Littlewood's response was that it was possible to be too strong of a mathematician,
"forcing through, where another might be driven to a different, and possibly more
fruitful, approach."

Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar (1887-1920) India

Like Abel, Ramanujan was a self-taught prodigy who lived in a country distant from
his mathematical peers, and suffered from poverty: childhood dysentery and vitamin
deficiencies probably led to his early death. Yet he produced 4000 theorems or
conjectures in number theory, algebra, and combinatorics. While some of these were
old theorems or just curiosities, many were brilliant new theorems with very difficult
proofs. For example, he found a beautiful identity connecting Poisson summation to
the Mbius function. Ramanujan might be almost unknown today, except that his
letter caught the eye of Godfrey Hardy, who saw remarkable, almost inexplicable
formulae which "must be true, because if they were not true, no one would have had
the imagination to invent them." Ramanujan's specialties included infinite series,
elliptic functions, continued fractions, partition enumeration, definite integrals,
modular equations, gamma functions, "mock theta" functions, hypergeometric series,
and "highly composite" numbers. Ramanujan's "Master Theorem" has wide
application in analysis, and has been applied to the evaluation of Feynman diagrams.
Much of his best work was done in collaboration with Hardy, for example a proof that
almost all numbers n have about log log n prime factors (a result which developed
into probabilistic number theory). Much of his methodology, including unusual ideas
about divergent series, was his own invention. (As a young man he made the absurd
claim that 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12. Later it was noticed that this claim translates to a true
statement about the Riemann zeta function, with which Ramanujan was unfamiliar.)
Ramanujan's innate ability for algebraic manipulations equaled or surpassed that of
Euler and Jacobi.

Ramanujan's most famous work was with the partition enumeration function p(),
Hardy guessing that some of these discoveries would have been delayed at least a
century without Ramanujan. Together, Hardy and Ramanujan developed an analytic
approximation to p(), although Hardy was initially awed by Ramanujan's intuitive
certainty about the existence of such a formula, and even the form it would have.
(Rademacher and Selberg later discovered an exact expression to replace the Hardy-
Ramanujan approximation; when Ramanujan's notebooks were studied it was found
he had anticipated their technique, but had deferred to his friend and mentor.)

In a letter from his deathbed, Ramanujan introduced his mysterious "mock theta
functions", gave examples, and developed their properties. Much later these forms
began to appear in disparate areas: combinatorics, the proof of Fermat's Last
Theorem, and even knot theory and the theory of black holes. It was only recently,
more than 80 years after Ramanujan's letter, that his conjectures about these functions
were proven; solutions mathematicians had sought unsuccessfully were found among
his examples. Mathematicians are baffled that Ramanujan could make these
conjectures, which they confirmed only with difficulty using methods not available in
Ramanujan's day.

Many of Ramanujan's results are so inspirational that there is a periodical dedicated to

them. The theories of strings and crystals have benefited from Ramanujan's work.
(Today some professors achieve fame just by finding a new proof for one of
Ramanujan's many results.) Unlike Abel, who insisted on rigorous proofs, Ramanujan
often omitted proofs. (Ramanujan may have had unrecorded proofs, poverty leading
him to use chalk and erasable slate rather than paper.) Unlike Abel, much of whose
work depended on the complex numbers, most of Ramanujan's work focused on real
numbers. Despite these limitations, some consider Ramanujan to be the greatest
mathematical genius ever; but he ranks as low as #19 because his work lacked great
influence.

Because of its fast convergence, an odd-looking formula of Ramanujan is sometimes

used to calculate :
992 / = 8 k=0, ((4k)! (1103+26390 k) / (k!4 3964k))

Thoralf Albert Skolem (1887-1963) Norway

Thoralf Skolem proved fundamental theorems of lattice theory, proved the Skolem-
Noether Theorem of algebra, also worked with set theory and Diophantine equations;
but is best known for his work in logic, metalogic, and non-standard models. Some of
his work preceded similar results by Gdel. He developed a theory of recursive
functions which anticipated some computer science. He worked on the famous
Lwenheim-Skolem Theorem which has the "paradoxical" consequence that systems
with uncountable sets can have countable models. ("Legend has it that Thoralf
Skolem, up until the end of his life, was scandalized by the association of his name to
a result of this type, which he considered an absurdity, nondenumerable sets being, for
him, fictions without real existence.")

George Plya (1887-1985) Hungary

George Plya (Plya Gyrgy) did significant work in several fields: complex analysis,
probability, geometry, algebraic number theory, and combinatorics, but is most noted
for his teaching How to Solve It, the craft of problem posing and proof. He is also
famous for the Plya Enumeration Theorem. Several other important theorems he
proved include the Plya-Vinogradov Inequality of number theory, the Plya-Szego
Inequality of functional analysis, and the Plya Inequality of measure theory. He
introduced the Hilbert-Plya Conjecture that the Riemann Hypothesis might be a
consequence of spectral theory; he introduced the famous "All horses are the same
color" example of inductive fallacy; he named the Central Limit Theorem of statistics.
Plya was the "teacher par excellence": he wrote top books on multiple subjects; his
successful students included John von Neumann. His work on plane symmetry groups
directly inspired Escher's drawings. Having huge breadth and influence, Plya has
been called "the most influential mathematician of the 20th century."
Stefan Banach (1892-1945) Poland

Stefan Banach was a self-taught mathematician who is most noted as the "Founder of
Functional Analysis" and for his contributions to measure theory. Among several
important theorems bearing his name are the Uniform Boundedness (Banach-
Steinhaus) Theorem, the Open Mapping (Banach-Schauder) Theorem, the Contraction
Mapping (Banach fixed-point) Theorem, and the Hahn-Banach Theorem. Many of
these theorems are of practical value to modern physics; however he also proved the
paradoxical Banach-Tarski Theorem, which demonstrates a sphere being rearranged
into two spheres of the same original size. (Banach's proof uses the Axiom of Choice
and is sometimes cited as evidence that that Axiom is false.) The wide range of
Banach's work is indicated by the Banach-Mazur results in game theory (which also
challenge the axiom of choice). Banach also made brilliant contributions to
probability theory, set theory, analysis and topology.

Banach once said "Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of
the human spirit."

Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) U.S.A.

Norbert Wiener entered college at age 11, studying various sciences; he wrote a PhD
dissertation at age 17 in philosophy of mathematics where he was one of the first to
show a definition of ordered pair as a set. (Hausdorff also proposed such a definition;
both Wiener's and Hausdorff's definitions have been superceded by Kuratowski's (a,
b) = {{a}, {a, b}} despite that it leads to a singleton when a=b.) He then did
important work in several topics in applied mathematics, including stochastic
processes (beginning with Brownian motion), potential theory, Fourier analysis, the
Wiener-Hopf decomposition useful for solving differential and integral equations,
communication theory, cognitive science, and quantum theory. Many theorems and
concepts are named after him, e.g the Wiener Filter used to reduce the error in noisy
signals. His most important contribution to pure mathematics was his generalization
of Fourier theory into generalized harmonic analysis, but he is most famous for his
writings on feedback in control systems, for which he coined the new
word, cybernetics. Wiener was first to relate information to thermodynamic entropy,
and anticipated the theory of information attributed to Claude Shannon. He also
designed an early analog computer. Although they differed dramatically in both
personal and mathematical outlooks, he and John von Neumann were the two key
pioneers (after Turing) in computer science. Wiener applied his cybernetics to draw
conclusions about human society which, unfortunately, remain largely unheeded.
Carl Ludwig Siegel (1896-1981) Germany

Carl Siegel became famous when his doctoral dissertation established a key result in
Diophantine approximations. He continued with contributions to several branches of
analytic and algebraic number theory, including arithmetic geometry and quadratic
forms. He also did seminal work with Riemann's zeta function, Dedekind's zeta
functions, transcendental number theory, discontinuous groups, the 3-body problem in
celestial mechanics, and symplectic geometry. In complex analysis he developed
Siegel modular forms, which have wide application in math and physics. He may
share credit with Alexander Gelfond for the solution to Hilbert's 7th Problem, Siegel
admired the "simplicity and honesty" of masters like Gauss, Lagrange and Hardy and
lamented the modern "trend for senseless abstraction." He and Israel Gelfand were the
first two winners of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics. Atle Selberg called him a
"devastatingly impressive" mathematician who did things that "seemed impossible."
Andr Weil declared that Siegel was the greatest mathematician of the first half of the
20th century.

Pavel Sergeevich Aleksandrov (1896-1962) Russia

Aleksandrov worked in set theory, metric spaces and several fields of topology, where
he developed techniques of very broad application. He pioneered the studies of
compact and bicompact spaces, and homology theory. He laid the groundwork for a
key theorem of metrisation. His most famous theorem may be his discovery about
"perfect subsets" when he was just 19 years old. Much of his work was done in
collaboration with Pavel Uryson and Heinz Hopf. Aleksandrov was an important
teacher; his students included Lev Pontryagin.

Emil Artin (1898-1962) Austria, Germany, U.S.A.

Artin was an important and prolific researcher in several fields of algebra, including
algebraic number theory, the theory of rings, field theory, algebraic topology, Galois
theory, a new method of L-series, and geometric algebra. Among his most famous
theorems were Artin's Reciprocity Law, key lemmas in Galois theory, and results in
his Theory of Braids. He also produced two very influential conjectures: his
conjecture about the zeta function in finite fields developed into the field of arithmetic
geometry; Artin's Conjecture on primitive roots inspired much work in number
theory, and was later generalized to become Weil's Conjectures. He is credited with
solution to Hilbert's 17th Problem and partial solution to the 9th Problem. His prize-
winning students include John Tate and Serge Lang. Artin also did work in physical
sciences, and was an accomplished musician.

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984) England, U.S.A.

Dirac had a severe father and was bizarrely taciturn, but became one of the greatest
mathematical physicists ever. This Nobel Prize-winner developed Fermi-Dirac
statistics, applied quantum theory to field theory, predicted the existence of magnetic
monopoles, and was first to note that some quantum equations lead to inexplicable
infinities. His most important contribution was to combine relativity and quantum
mechanics by developing, with pure thought, the Dirac Equation. From this equation,
Dirac deduced the existence of anti-electrons, a prediction considered so bizarre it was
ignored -- until anti-electrons were discovered in a cloud chamber four years later.
Dirac's mathematical formulations, including his Equation and the Dirac-von
Neumann axioms, underpin all of modern particle physics. After his great discovery,
Dirac continued to do important work, some of which underlies modern string theory.
He was also adept at more practical physics; although he declined an invitation to
work on the Manhattan Project, he did contribute a fundamental result in centrifuge
theory to that Project.

The Dirac Equation was one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th
century, but I've left Dirac off of the Top 100 since his work didn't advance "pure"
mathematics. Like many of the other greatest mathematical physicists (Kepler,
Einstein, Weyl), Dirac thought the true equations of physics must have beauty, writing
"... it is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit
experiment ... [any discrepancy may] get cleared up with further development of the
theory."

Alfred Tarski (1902-1983) Poland, U.S.A.

Alfred Tarski (born Alfred Tajtelbaum) was one of the greatest and most prolific
logicians ever, but also made advances in set theory, measure theory, topology,
algebra, group theory, computability theory, metamathematics, and geometry. He was
also acclaimed as a teacher. Although he achieved fame at an early age with the
Banach-Tarski Paradox, his greatest achievements were in formal logic. He wrote on
the definition of truth, developed model theory, and investigated the completeness
questions which also intrigued Gdel. He proved several important systems to be
incomplete, but also established completeness results for real arithmetic and
geometry. His most famous result may be Tarski's Undefinability Theorem, which is
related to Gdel's Incompleteness Theorem but more powerful. Several other
theorems, theories and paradoxes are named after Tarski including Tarski-
Grothendieck Set Theory, Tarski's Fixed-Point Theorem of lattice theory (from which
the famous Cantor-Bernstein Theorem is a simple corollary), and a new derivation of
the Axiom of Choice (which Lebesgue refused to publish because "an implication
between two false propositions is of no interest"). Tarski was first to enunciate the
remarkable fact that the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis implies the Axiom of
Choice, although proof had to wait for Sierpinski. Tarski's other notable
accomplishments include his cylindrical algebra, ordinal algebra, universal algebra,
and an elegant and novel axiomatic basis of geometry.

John von Neumann (1903-1957) Hungary, U.S.A.

John von Neumann (born Neumann Janos Lajos) was a childhood prodigy who could
do very complicated mental arithmetic at an early age. As an adult he was noted for
hedonism and reckless driving but also became one of the most prolific geniuses in
history, making major contributions in many branches of both pure and applied
mathematics. He was an essential pioneer of both quantum physics and computer
science.

Von Neumann pioneered the use of models in set theory, thus improving the
axiomatic basis of mathematics. He proved a generalized spectral theorem sometimes
called the most important result in operator theory. He developed von Neumann
Algebras. He was first to state and prove the Minimax Theorem and thus invented
game theory; this work also advanced operations research; and led von Neumann to
propose the Doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction which was a basis for Cold War
strategy. He invented cellular automata, famously constructing a self-reproducing
automaton. He invented elegant definitions for the counting numbers (0 = {}, n+1 = n
{n}). He also worked in analysis, matrix theory, measure theory, numerical analysis,
ergodic theory, group representations, continuous geometry, statistics and topology.
Von Neumann discovered an ingenious area-conservation paradox related to the
famous Banach-Tarski volume-conservation paradox. He inspired some of Gdel's
famous work (and independently proved Gdel's Second Theorem). He is credited
with (partial) solution to Hilbert's 5th Problem using the Haar Theorem; this also
relates to quantum physics. George Plya once said "Johnny was the only student I
was ever afraid of. If in the course of a lecture I stated an unsolved problem, the
chances were he'd come to me as soon as the lecture was over, with the complete
solution in a few scribbles on a slip of paper."

Von Neumann did very important work in fields other than pure mathematics. By
treating the universe as a very high-dimensional phase space, he constructed an
elegant mathematical basis (now called von Neumann algebras) for the principles of
quantum physics. He advanced philosophical questions about time and logic in
modern physics. He played key roles in the design of conventional, nuclear and
thermonuclear bombs; he also advanced the theory of hydrodynamics. He applied
game theory and Brouwer's Fixed-Point Theorem to economics, becoming a major
figure in that field. His contributions to computer science are many: in addition to co-
inventing the stored-program computer, he was first to use pseudo-random number
generation, finite element analysis, the merge-sort algorithm, and a "biased coin"
algorithm. By implementing wide-number software he joined several other great
mathematicians (Archimedes, Apollonius, Liu Hui, Hipparchus, Madhava, and (by
proxy), Ramanujan) in producing the best approximation to of his time. At the time
of his death, von Neumann was working on a theory of the human brain.

Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903-1987) Russia

Kolmogorov had a powerful intellect and excelled in many fields. As a youth he

dazzled his teachers by constructing toys that appeared to be "Perpetual Motion
Machines." At the age of 19, he achieved fame by finding a Fourier series that
diverges almost everywhere, and decided to devote himself to mathematics. He is
considered the founder of the fields of intuitionistic logic, algorithmic complexity
theory, and (by applying measure theory) modern probability theory. He also excelled
in topology, set theory, trigonometric series, and random processes. He and his
student Vladimir Arnold proved the surprising Superposition Theorem, which not
only solved Hilbert's 13th Problem, but went far beyond it. He and Arnold also
developed the "magnificent" Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) Theorem, which
quantifies how strong a perturbation must be to upset a quasiperiodic dynamical
system. Kolmogorov's axioms of probability are considered a partial solution of
Hilbert's 6th Problem. He made important contributions to the constructivist ideas of
Kronecker and Brouwer. While Kolmogorov's work in probability theory had direct
applications to physics, Kolmogorov also did work in physics directly, especially the
study of turbulence. There are dozens of notions named after Kolmogorov, such as the
Kolmogorov Backward Equation, the Chapman-Kolmogorov equations, the Borel-
Kolmogorov Paradox, and the intriguing Zero-One Law of "tail events" among
random variables.
Henri Paul Cartan (1904-2008) France

Henri Cartan, son of the great lie Cartan, is particularly noted for his work in
algebraic topology, and analytic functions; but also worked with sheaves, and many
other areas of mathematics. He was a key member of the Bourbaki circle. (That circle
was led by Weil, emphasized rigor, produced important texts, and introduced terms
like in-, sur-, and bi-jection, as well as the symbol.) Working with Samuel
Eilenberg (also a Bourbakian), Cartan advanced the theory of homological algebra.
He is most noted for his many contributions to the theory of functions of several
complex variables. Henri Cartan was an important influence on Grothendieck and
others, and an excellent teacher; his students included Jean-Pierre Serre.

Kurt Gdel (1906-1978) Germany, U.S.A.

Gdel, who had the nickname Herr Warum ("Mr. Why") as a child, was perhaps the
foremost logic theorist ever, clarifying the relationships between various modes of
logic. He partially resolved both Hilbert's 1st and 2nd Problems, the latter with a proof
so remarkable that it was connected to the drawings of Escher and music of Bach in
the title of a famous book. He was a close friend of Albert Einstein, and was first to
discover "paradoxical" solutions (e.g. time travel) to Einstein's equations. About his
friend, Einstein later said that he had remained at Princeton's Institute for Advanced
Study merely "to have the privilege of walking home with Gdel." (Like a few of the
other greatest 20th-century mathematicians, Gdel was very eccentric.)

Two of the major questions confronting mathematics are: (1) are its axioms consistent
(its theorems all being true statements)?, and (2) are its axioms complete (its true
statements all being theorems)? Gdel turned his attention to these fundamental
questions. He proved that first-order logic was indeed complete, but that the more
powerful axiom systems needed for arithmetic (constructible set theory) were
necessarily incomplete. He also proved that the Axioms of Choice (AC) and the
Generalized Continuum Hypothesis (GCH) were consistent with set theory, but that
set theory's own consistency could not be proven. He may have established that the
truths of AC and GCH were independent of the usual set theory axioms, but the proof
was left to Paul Cohen.

In Gdel's famous proof of Incompleteness, he exhibits a true statement (G) which

cannot be proven, to wit "G (this statement itself) cannot be proven." If G could be
proven it would be a contradictory true statement, so consistency dictates that it
indeed cannot be proven. But that's what G says, so G is true! This sounds like mere
word play, but building from ordinary logic and arithmetic Gdel was able to
construct statement G rigorously.

Andr Weil (1906-1998) France, U.S.A.

Weil made profound contributions to several areas of mathematics, especially

algebraic geometry, which he showed to have deep connections with number theory.
His Weil conjectures were very influential; these and other works laid the groundwork
for some of Grothendieck's work. Weil proved a special case of the Riemann
Hypothesis; he contributed, at least indirectly, to the recent proof of Fermat's Last
Theorem; he also worked in group theory, general and algebraic topology, differential
geometry, sheaf theory, representation theory, and theta functions. He invented
several new concepts including vector bundles, and uniform space. His work has
found applications in particle physics and string theory. He is considered to be one of
the most influential of modern mathematicians.

Weil's biography is interesting. He studied Sanskrit as a child, loved to travel, taught

at a Muslim university in India for two years (intending to teach French civilization),
wrote as a young man under the famous pseudonym Nicolas Bourbaki, spent time in
prison during World War II as a Jewish objector, was almost executed as a spy,
escaped to America, and eventually joined Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies.
He once wrote: "Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced [a] lucid
exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously."

Shiing-Shen Chern (1911-2004) China, U.S.A.

Shiing-Shen Chern (Chen Xingshen) studied under lie Cartan, and became perhaps
the greatest master of differential geometry. He is especially noted for his work in
algebraic geometry, topology and fiber bundles, developing his Chern characters (in a
paper with "a tremendous number of geometrical jewels"), developing Chern-Weil
theory, the Chern-Simons invariants, and especially for his brilliant generalization of
the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem to multiple dimensions. His work had a major influence in
several fields of modern mathematics as well as gauge theories of physics. Chern was
an important influence in China and a highly renowned and successful teacher: one of
his students (Yau) won the Fields Medal, another (Yang) the Nobel Prize in physics.
Chern himself was the first Asian to win the prestigious Wolf Prize.
Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954) Britain

Turing developed a new foundation for mathematics based on computation; he

invented the abstract Turing machine, designed a "universal" version of such a
machine, proved the famous Halting Theorem (related to Gdel's Incompleteness
Theorem), and developed the concept of machine intelligence (including his
famous Turing Test proposal). He also introduced the notions of definable
number and oracle (important in modern computer science), and was an early pioneer
in the study of neural networks. For this work he is called the Father of Computer
Science and Artificial Intelligence. Turing also worked in group theory, numerical
analysis, and complex analysis; he developed an important theorem about Riemann's
zeta function; he had novel insights in quantum physics. During World War II he
turned his talents to cryptology; his creative algorithms were considered possibly
"indispensable" to the decryption of German Naval Enigma coding, which in turn is
judged to have certainly shortened the War by at least two years. Although his clever
code-breaking algorithms were his most spectacular contributions at Bletchley Park,
he was also a key designer of the Bletchley "Bombe" computer. After the war he
helped design other physical computers, as well as theoretical designs; and helped
inspire von Neumann's later work. He (and earlier, von Neumann) wrote about the
Quantum Zeno Effect which is sometimes called the Turing Paradox. He also studied
the mathematics of biology, especially the Turing Patterns of morphogenesis which
anticipated the discovery of BZ reactions. Turing's life ended tragically: charged with
immorality and forced to undergo chemical castration, he apparently took his own life.
With his outstanding depth and breadth, Alan Turing would qualify for our list in any
event, but his decisive contribution to the war against Hitler gives him unusually
strong historic importance.

Paul Erds (1913-1996) Hungary, U.S.A., Israel, etc.

Erds was a childhood prodigy who became a famous (and famously eccentric)
mathematician. He is best known for work in combinatorics (especially Ramsey
Theory) and partition calculus, but made contributions across a very broad range of
mathematics, including graph theory, analytic number theory, probabilistic methods,
and approximation theory. He is regarded as the second most prolific mathematician
in history, behind only Euler. Although he is widely regarded as an important and
influential mathematician, Erds founded no new field of mathematics: He was a
"problem solver" rather than a "theory developer." He's left us several still-unproven
intriguing conjectures, e.g. that 4/n = 1/x + 1/y + 1/z has positive-integer solutions
for any n.

Erds liked to speak of "God's Book of Proofs" and discovered new, more elegant,
proofs of several existing theorems, including the two most famous and important
about prime numbers: Chebyshev's Theorem that there is always a prime between
any n and 2n, and (though the major contributor was Atle Selberg) Hadamard's Prime
Number Theorem itself. He also proved many new theorems, such as the Erds-
Szekeres Theorem about monotone subsequences with its elegant (if trivial)
pigeonhole-principle proof.

Samuel Eilenberg (1913-1998) Poland, U.S.A.

Eilenberg is considered a founder of category theory, but also worked in algebraic

topology, automata theory and other areas. He coined several new terms
including functor, category, and natural isomorphism. Several other concepts are
named after him, e.g. a proof method called the Eilenberg telescope or Eilenberg-
Mazur Swindle. He worked on cohomology theory, homological algebra, etc. By
using his category theory and axioms of homology, he unified and revolutionized
topology. Most of his work was done in collaboration with others, e.g. Henri Cartan;
but he also single-authored an important text laying a mathematical foundation for
theories of computation and language. Sammy Eilenberg was also a noted art
collector.

Israel Moiseevich Gelfand (1913-2009) Russia

Gelfand was a brilliant and important mathematician of outstanding breadth with a

huge number of theorems and discoveries. He was a key figure of functional analysis
and integral geometry; he pioneered representation theory, important to modern
physics; he also worked in many fields of analysis, soliton theory, distribution theory,
index theory, Banach algebra, cohomology, etc. He made advances in physics and
biology as well as mathematics. He won the Order of Lenin three times and several
prizes from Western countries. Considered one of the two greatest Russian
mathematicians of the 20th century, the two were compared with "[arriving in a
mountainous country] Kolmogorov would immediately try to climb the highest
mountain; Gelfand would immediately start to build roads." In old age Israel Gelfand
emigrated to the U.S.A. as a professor, and won a MacArthur Fellowship.
Claude Elwood Shannon (1916-2001) U.S.A.

Shannon's initial fame was for a paper called "possibly the most important master's
thesis of the century." That paper founded digital circuit design theory by proving that
universal computation was achieved with an ensemble of switches and boolean gates.
He also worked with analog computers, theoretical genetics, and sampling and
communication theories. Early in his career Shannon was fortunate to work with
several other great geniuses including Weyl, Turing, Gdel and even Einstein; this
may have stimulated him toward a broad range of interests and expertise. He was an
important and prolific inventor, discovering signal-flow graphs, the topological gain
formula, etc.; but also inventing the first wearable computer (to time roulette wheels
in Las Vegas casinos), a chess-playing algorithm, a flame-throwing trumpet, and
whimsical robots (e.g. a "mouse" that navigated a maze). His hobbies included
juggling, unicycling, blackjack card-counting. His investigations into gambling theory
led to new approaches to the stock market.

Shannon worked in cryptography during World War II; he was first to note that a one-
time pad allowed unbreakable encryption as long as the pad was as large as the
message; he is also noted for Shannon's maxim that a code designer should assume
the enemy knows the system. His insights into cryptology eventually led to
information theory, or the mathematical theory of communication, in which Shannon
established the relationships among bits, entropy, power and noise. It is as the
Founder of Information Theory that Shannon has become immortal.

Atle Selberg (1917-2007) Norway, U.S.A.

Selberg may be the greatest analytic number theorist ever. He also did important work
in Fourier spectral theory, lattice theory (e.g. introducing and partially proving the
conjecture that "all lattices are arithmetic"), and the theory of automorphic forms,
where he introduced Selberg's Trace Formula. He developed a very important result in
analysis called the Selberg Integral. Other Selberg techniques of general utility
include mollification, sieve theory, and the Rankin-Selberg method. These have
inspired other mathematicians, e.g. contributing to Deligne's proof of the Weil
conjectures. Selberg is also famous for ground-breaking work on Riemann's
Hypothesis, and the first "elementary" proof of the Prime Number Theorem.
Jean-Pierre Serre (1926-) France

Serre did important work with spectral sequences and algebraic methods,
revolutionizing the study of algebraic topology and algebraic geometry, especially
homotopy groups and sheaves. Hermann Weyl praised Serre's work strongly, saying it
gave an important new algebraic basis to analysis. He collaborated with Grothendieck
and Pierre Deligne, helped resolve the Weil conjectures, and contributed indirectly to
the recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. His wide range of research areas also
includes number theory, bundles, fibrations, p-adic modular forms, Galois
representation theory, and more. Serre has been much honored: he is the youngest
ever to win a Fields Medal; 49 years after his Fields Medal he became the first
recipient of the Abel Prize.

Alexandre Grothendieck (1928-2014) Germany, France

Grothendieck has done brilliant work in several areas of mathematics including
number theory, geometry, topology, and functional analysis, but especially in the
fields of algebraic geometry and category theory, both of which he revolutionized. He
is especially noted for his invention of the Theory of Schemes, and other methods to
unify different branches of mathematics. He applied algebraic geometry to number
theory; applied methods of topology to set theory; etc. Grothendieck is considered a
master of abstraction, rigor and presentation. He has produced many important and
deep results in homological algebra, most notably his etale cohomology. With these
new methods, Grothendieck and his outstanding student Pierre Deligne were able to
prove the Weil Conjectures. Grothendieck also developed the theory of sheafs, the
theory of motives, generalized the Riemann-Roch Theorem to revolutionize K-theory,
developed Grothendieck categories, crystalline cohomology, infinity-stacks and more.
The guiding principle behind much of Grothendieck's work has been Topos Theory,
which he invented to harness the methods of topology. These methods and results
have redirected several diverse branches of modern mathematics including number
theory, algebraic topology, and representation theory. Among Grothendieck's famous
results was his Fundamental Theorem in the Metric Theory of Tensor Products, which
was inspired by Littlewood's proof of the 4/3 Inequality.

Grothendieck's radical religious and political philosophies led him to retire from
public life while still in his prime, but he is widely regarded as the greatest
mathematician of the 20th century, and indeed one of the greatest geniuses ever.
Lennart Axel Edvard Carleson (1928-) Sweden

Carleson is a master of complex analysis, especially harmonic analysis, and

dynamical systems; he proved many difficult and important theorems; among these
are a theorem about quasiconformal mapping extension, a technique to construct
higher dimensional strange attractors, and the famous Kakutani Corona Conjecture,
whose proof brought Carleson great fame. For the Corona proof he introduced
Carleson measures, one of several useful tools he's created for his masterful proofs. In
1966, four years after proving Kakutani's Conjecture, he proved the 53-year old
Luzin's Conjecture, a strong statement about Fourier convergence. This was startling
because of a 38-year old conjecture suggested by Kolmogorov that Luzin's Conjecture
was false.

Michael Francis (Sir) Atiyah (1929-) Britain

Atiyah's career has had extraordinary breadth and depth. He advanced the theory of
vector bundles; this developed into topological K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer Index
Theorem. This Index Theorem is considered one of the most far-reaching theorems
ever, subsuming famous old results (Descartes' total angular defect, Euler's
topological characteristic), important 19th-century theorems (Gauss-Bonnet,
Riemann-Roch), and incorporating important work by Weil and especially Shiing-
Shen Chern. It is a key to the study of high-dimension spaces, differential geometry,
and equation solving. Several other key results are named after Atiyah, e.g. the
Atiyah-Bott Fixed-Point Theorem, the Atiyah-Segal Completion Theorem, and the
Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence. Atiyah's work developed important connections
not only between topology and analysis, but with modern physics; Atiyah himself has
been a key figure in the development of string theory. This work, and Atiyah-inspired
work in gauge theory, restored a close relationship between leading edge research in
mathematics and physics. Atiyah is known as a vivacious genius in person, inspiring
many, e.g. Edward Witten. Along with Serre, Atiyah is often considered to be one of
the very greatest living mathematicians.

Atiyah once said a mathematician must sometimes "freely float in the atmosphere like
a poet and imagine the whole universe of possibilities, and hope that eventually you
come down to Earth somewhere else."

John Willard Milnor (1931-) U.S.A.

Milnor has made major advances in topology (especially differential topology),
algebraic geometry, and dynamical systems. He discovered Milnor maps (related to
fiber bundles); important theorems in knot theory; the Duality Theorem for
Reidemeister Torsion; the Milnor Attractors of dynamical systems; a new elegant
proof of Brouwer's "Hairy Ball" Theorem; and much more. He is especially famous
for two counterexamples which each revolutionized topology. His "exotic" 7-
dimensional hyperspheres gave the first examples of homeomorphic manifolds that
were not also diffeomorphic, and developed the fields of differential topology
and surgery theory. Milnor invented certain high-dimensional polyhedra to disprove
the Hauptvermutung ("main conjecture") of geometric topology. While most famous
for his exotic counterexamples, his revolutionary insights into dynamical systems
have important value to practical applied mathematics. Although Milnor has been
called the "Wizard of Higher Dimensions," his work in dynamics began with novel
insights into very low-dimensional systems.

As Fields, Presidential and (twice) Putnam Medalist, as well as winner of the Abel,
Wolf and two Steele Prizes; Milnor can be considered the most "decorated"
mathematician of the modern era.

Robert Phelan Langlands (1936-) Canada, U.S.A.

Langlands started by studying semigroups and partial differential equations but soon
switched his attention to representation theory where he found deep connections
between group theory and automorphic forms; he then used these connections to make
profound discoveries in number theory. Langlands' methods, collectively called the
Langlands Program, are now central to all of these fields. The Langlands Dual
Group LG revolutionized representation theory and led to a large number of
conjectures. One of these conjectures is the Principle of Functoriality, of which a
partial proof allowed Langlands to prove a famous conjecture of Artin, and Wiles to
prove Fermat's Last Theorem. Langlands and others have applied these methods to
prove several other old conjectures, and to formulate new more powerful conjectures.
He has also worked with Eisenstein series, L-functions, Lie groups, percolation
theory, etc. He mentored several important mathematicians (including Thomas Hales,
mentioned briefly in Pappus' mini-bio).

Langlands once wrote "Certainly the best times were when I was alone with
mathematics, free of ambition and pretense, and indifferent to the world." He was
appointed Hermann Weyl Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and now sits
in the office once occupied by Albert Einstein. This seems appropriate since, as the
man "who reinvented mathematics," his advances have sometimes been compared to
Einstein's.

John Horton Conway (1937-) Britain, U.S.A.

Conway has done pioneering work in a very broad range of mathematics including
knot theory, number theory, group theory, lattice theory, combinatorial game theory,
geometry, quaternions, tilings, and cellular automaton theory. He started his career by
proving a case of Waring's Problem, but achieved fame when he discovered the
largest then-known sporadic group (the symmetry group of the Leech lattice); this
sporadic group is now known to be second in size only to the Monster Group, with
which Conway also worked. Conway's fertile creativity has produced a cornucopia of
fascinating inventions: markable straight-edge construction of the regular heptagon (a
feat also achieved by Alhazen, Thabit, Vieta and perhaps Archimedes), a nowhere-
continuous function that has the Intermediate Value property, the Conway box
function, the aperiodic pinwheel tiling, a representation of symmetric polyhedra, the
silly but elegant Fractran programming language, his chained-arrow notation for
large numbers, and many results and conjectures in recreational mathematics. He
found the simplest proof for Morley's Trisector Theorem (sometimes called the best
result in simple plane geometry since ancient Greece). He proved an unusual theorem
about quantum physics: "If experimenters have free will, then so do elementary
particles." His most famous construction is the computationally complete automaton
known as the Game of Life. His most important theoretical invention, however, may
be his surreal numbers incorporating infinitesimals; he invented them to solve
combinatorial games like Go, but they have pure mathematical significance as the
largest possible ordered field.

Conway's great creativity and breadth certainly make him one of the greatest living
mathematicians. Conway has won the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics, and was first
winner of the Plya Prize.

Mikhael Leonidovich Gromov (1943-) Russia, France

Gromov is considered one of the greatest geometers ever, but he has a unique "soft"
approach to geometry which leads to applications in other fields: Gromov has
contributed to group theory, partial differential equations, other areas of analysis and
algebra, and even mathematical biology. He is especially famous for his
pseudoholomorphic curves; they revolutionized the study of symplectic manifolds and
are important in string theory. By applying his geometric ideas to all areas of
mathematics, Gromov has become one of the most influential living mathematicians.
He has proved a very wide variety of theorems: important results about groups of
polynomial growth, theorems essential to Perelman's proof of the Poincar conjecture,
the nonsqueezing theorem of Hamiltonian mechanics, theorems of systolic geometry,
and various inequalities and compactness theorems. Several concepts are named after
him, including Gromov-Hausdorff convergence, Gromov-Witten invariants, Gromov's
random groups, Gromov product, etc.

Pierre Ren Deligne (1944-) Belgium, France, U.S.A.

Using new ideas about cohomology, in 1974 Pierre Deligne stunned the world of
mathematics with a spectacular proof of the Weil conjectures. Proof of these
conjectures, which were key to further progress in algebraic geometry, had eluded the
great Alexandre Grothendieck. With his "unparalleled blend of penetrating insights,
fearless technical mastery and dazzling ingenuity," Deligne made other important
contributions to a broad range of mathematics in addition to algebraic geometry,
including algebraic and analytic number theory, topology, group theory, the
Langlands conjectures, Grothendieck's theory of motives, and Hodge theory. Deligne
also found a partial solution of Hilbert's 21st Problem. Several ideas are named after
him including Deligne-Lusztig theory, Deligne-Mumford stacks, Fourier-Deligne
transform, the Langlands-Deligne local constant, Deligne cohomology, and at least
eight distinct conjectures.

Terence Chi-Shen Tao (1975-) Australia, U.S.A.

Tao was a phenomenal child prodigy who has become perhaps the greatest living
mathematician. He has made important contributions to partial differential equations,
combinatorics, harmonic analysis, number theory, group theory, model theory,
nonstandard analysis, random matrices, the geometry of 3-manifolds, functional
analysis, ergodic theory, etc. and areas of applied math including quantum mechanics,
general relativity, and image processing. He has been called the first since David
Hilbert to be expert across the entire spectrum of mathematics. Among his earliest
important discoveries were results about the multi-dimensional Kakeya needle
problem, which led to advances in Fourier analysis and fractals. In addition to his
numerous research papers he has written many highly regarded textbooks. One of his
prize citations commends his "sheer technical power, his other-worldly ingenuity for
hitting upon new ideas, and a startlingly natural point of view."
Much of Tao's work has been done in collaboration: for example with Van Vu he
proved the circular law of random matrices; with Ben Green he proved the Dirac-
Motzkin conjecture and solved the "orchard-planting problem." Especially famous is
the Green-Tao Theorem that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic series among the
prime numbers (or indeed among any sufficiently dense subset of the primes). This
confirmed an old conjecture by Lagrange, and was especially remarkable because the
proof fused methods from number theory, ergodic theory, harmonic analysis, discrete
geometry, and combinatorics.