Greatest Mathematicians in History
Name↕ | Country↕ | Lifespan↕ | Field↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Euclid | Ancient Greece | c.325-270 BCE | Geometry | Wrote Elements, the foundational textbook of geometry used for 2,000 years |
Archimedes | Ancient Greece | c.287-212 BCE | Geometry, Calculus precursor | Method of exhaustion, pi approximation, principle of buoyancy, killed at siege of Syracuse |
Pythagoras | Ancient Greece | c.570-495 BCE | Number theory | Pythagorean theorem, mystical number cult, harmonic ratios in music |
Isaac Newton | England | 1643-1727 | Calculus, Physics | Co-invented calculus, Principia Mathematica, universal gravitation, feud with Leibniz |
Gottfried Leibniz | Germany | 1646-1716 | Calculus | Independently developed calculus, modern dx/dy notation, binary number system |
Leonhard Euler | Switzerland | 1707-1783 | Analysis, Graph theory | Most prolific mathematician ever, e^(i*pi)+1=0, Konigsberg bridges, blind last years |
Carl Friedrich Gauss | Germany | 1777-1855 | Number theory, Statistics | Prince of Mathematicians, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, normal distribution, predicted Ceres |
Bernhard Riemann | Germany | 1826-1866 | Geometry, Analysis | Riemann hypothesis (still unsolved), Riemannian geometry that enabled general relativity |
Henri Poincare | France | 1854-1912 | Topology, Dynamics | Founded topology, Poincare conjecture (solved by Perelman), chaos theory roots |
Srinivasa Ramanujan | India | 1887-1920 | Number theory | Self-taught genius, 3,900 identities, mock theta functions, died at 32 |
David Hilbert | Germany | 1862-1943 | Foundations | 23 unsolved problems at 1900 ICM, Hilbert spaces, formalist program for mathematics |
Kurt Godel | Austria/USA | 1906-1978 | Logic | Incompleteness theorems destroyed Hilbert's program, Einstein's Princeton walking partner |
Alan Turing | UK | 1912-1954 | Logic, Computing | Turing machine, cracked Enigma at Bletchley Park, chemically castrated for homosexuality |
John von Neumann | Hungary/USA | 1903-1957 | Many fields | Game theory, computer architecture, quantum math foundations, Manhattan Project |
Paul Erdos | Hungary | 1913-1996 | Combinatorics | Most collaborative mathematician ever, Erdos number, lived out of a suitcase |
Andrew Wiles | UK | 1953- | Number theory | Proved Fermat's Last Theorem in 1994 after 7 years of secret work |
Terence Tao | Australia/USA | 1975- | Harmonic analysis | Child prodigy, Fields Medal 2006, Green-Tao theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions |
Emmy Noether | Germany | 1882-1935 | Abstract algebra | Noether's theorem linking symmetries and conservation laws, revolutionized abstract algebra |
Pierre de Fermat | France | 1607-1665 | Number theory | Fermat's Last Theorem margin note, co-founded probability theory with Pascal |
Blaise Pascal | France | 1623-1662 | Probability, Geometry | Pascal's triangle, built first mechanical calculator, probability theory, Pascal's wager |
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