LIST OF IMPORTANT MATHEMATICIANS This is a chronological list of some of the most important mathematicians in history and their major

achievments, as well as some very early achievements in mathematics for which individual contributions can not be acknowledged. Where the mathematicians have individual pages in this website, these pages are linked; otherwise more information can usually be obtained from the general page relating to the particular period in history, or from the list of sources used. Date 35000 BC 3100 BC 2700 BC 2600 BC 20001800 BC 18001600 BC 1650 BC 1200 BC 1200900 BC 800400 BC 650 BC 624546 BC 570495 BC 500 BC 490430 BC 470410 Name Nationality African Sumerian Egyptian Sumerian Egyptian Major Achievements First notched tally bones Earliest documented counting and measuring system Earliest fully-developed base 10 number system in use Multiplication tables, geometrical exercises and division problems Earliest papyri showing numeration system and basic arithmetic Clay tablets dealing with fractions, algebra and equations

Babylonian

Egyptian Chinese Indian

Rhind Papyrus (instruction manual in arithmetic, geometry, unit fractions, etc) First decimal numeration system with place value concept Early Vedic mantras invoke powers of ten from a hundred all the way up to a trillion Sulba Sutra lists several Pythagorean triples and simplified Pythagorean theorem for the sides of a square and a rectangle, quite accurate approximation to 2 Lo Shu order three (3 x 3) magic square in which each row, column and diagonal sums to 15 Early developments in geometry, including work on similar and right triangles Expansion of geometry, rigorous approach building from first principles, square and triangular numbers, Pythagoras theorem Discovered potential existence of irrational numbers while trying to calculate the value of 2 Describes a series of paradoxes concerning infinity and infinitesimals First systematic compilation of geometrical knowledge, Lune of Hippocrates

Indian

Chinese Thales Greek

Pythagoras

Greek

Hippasus

Greek

Zeno of Elea Greek

Hippocrates of Chios

Greek

BC 460370 BC 428348 BC 410355 BC 384322 BC 300 BC

Democritus

Greek

Developments in geometry and fractions, volume of a cone Platonic solids, statement of the Three Classical Problems, influential teacher and popularizer of mathematics, insistence on rigorous proof and logical methods Method for rigorously proving statements about areas and volumes by successive approximations Development and standardization of logic (although not then considered part of mathematics) and deductive reasoning Definitive statement of classical (Euclidean) geometry, use of axioms and postulates, many formulas, proofs and theorems including Euclids Theorem on infinitude of primes Formulas for areas of regular shapes, method of exhaustion for approximating areas and value of , comparison of infinities Sieve of Eratosthenes method for identifying prime numbers Work on geometry, especially on cones and conic sections (ellipse, parabola, hyperbola) Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, including guide to how to solve equations using sophisticated matrixbased methods Develop first detailed trigonometry tables

Plato

Greek

Eudoxus of Cnidus Aristotle

Greek

Greek

Euclid

Greek

287212 BC 276195 BC 262190 BC 200 BC

Archimedes

Greek

Eratosthenes Greek

Apollonius of Greek Perga Chinese

190- Hipparchus 120 BC 36 BC 10-70 Heron (or AD Hero) of Alexandria 90Ptolemy 168 AD 200 Sun Tzu AD 200 AD 200- Diophantus 284 AD 220- Liu Hui 280 AD

Greek

Mayan

Pre-classic Mayans developed the concept of zero by at least this time Greek Herons Formula for finding the area of a triangle from its side lengths, Herons Method for iteratively computing a square root Greek/Egypti Develop even more detailed trigonometry tables an Chinese Indian Greek First definitive statement of Chinese Remainder Theorem Refined and perfected decimal place value number system Diophantine Analysis of complex algebraic problems, to find rational solutions to equations with several unknowns Solved linear equations using a matrices (similar to Gaussian elimination), leaving roots unevaluated, calculated value of correct to five decimal places, early

Chinese

400 AD 476550 AD Aryabhata

Indian

Indian

598668 AD 600680 AD 780850 AD 908946 AD 9531029 AD 9661059 AD 10481131 11141185

Brahmagupt Indian a

Bhaskara I

Indian

Muhammad Persian Al-Khwarizmi

Ibrahim ibn Sinan Muhammad Al-Karaji Ibn alHaytham (Alhazen)

Arabic

forms of integral and differential calculus Surya Siddhanta contains roots of modern trigonometry, including first real use of sines, cosines, inverse sines, tangents and secants Definitions of trigonometric functions, complete and accurate sine and versine tables, solutions to simultaneous quadratic equations, accurate approximation for (and recognition that is an irrational number) Basic mathematical rules for dealing with zero (+, - and x), negative numbers, negative roots of quadratic equations, solution of quadratic equations with two unknowns First to write numbers in Hindu-Arabic decimal system with a circle for zero, remarkably accurate approximation of the sine function Advocacy of the Hindu numerals 1 - 9 and 0 in Islamic world, foundations of modern algebra, including algebraic methods of reduction and balancing, solution of polynomial equations up to second degree Continued Archimedes' investigations of areas and volumes, tangents to a circle First use of proof by mathematical induction, including to prove the binomial theorem

Persian

11701250

12011274 12021261 12381298 12671319

Persian/Arabi Derived a formula for the sum of fourth powers using a c readily generalizable method, Alhazen's problem, established beginnings of link between algebra and geometry Omar Persian Generalized Indian methods for extracting square and Khayyam cube roots to include fourth, fifth and higher roots, noted existence of different sorts of cubic equations Bhaskara II Indian Established that dividing by zero yields infinity, found solutions to quadratic, cubic and quartic equations (including negative and irrational solutions) and to second order Diophantine equations, introduced some preliminary concepts of calculus Leonardo of Italian Fibonacci Sequence of numbers, advocacy of the use of Pisa the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Europe, Fibonacci's (Fibonacci) identity (product of two sums of two squares is itself a sum of two squares) Nasir al-Din Persian Developed field of spherical trigonometry, formulated law al-Tusi of sines for plane triangles Qin Jiushao Chinese Solutions to quadratic, cubic and higher power equations using a method of repeated approximations Yang Hui Chinese Culmination of Chinese magic squares, circles and triangles, Yang Huis Triangle (earlier version of Pascals Triangle of binomial co-efficients) Kamal al-Din Persian Applied theory of conic sections to solve optical problems, al-Farisi explored amicable numbers, factorization and

1350- Madhava 1425 1323- Nicole 1382 Oresme 1446- Luca Pacioli 1517 1499- Niccol 1557 Fontana Tartaglia 1501- Gerolamo 1576 Cardano 1522- Lodovico 1565 Ferrari 1550- John Napier 1617 1588- Marin 1648 Mersenne 15911661 15961650 Girard Desargues Ren Descartes

Indian

French

Italian

Italian

Italian

Italian British

combinatorial methods Use of infinite series of fractions to give an exact formula for , sine formula and other trigonometric functions, important step towards development of calculus System of rectangular coordinates, such as for a timespeed-distance graph, first to use fractional exponents, also worked on infinite series Influential book on arithmetic, geometry and bookkeeping, also introduced standard symbols for plus and minus Formula for solving all types of cubic equations, involving first real use of complex numbers (combinations of real and imaginary numbers), Tartaglias Triangle (earlier version of Pascals Triangle) Published solution of cubic and quartic equations (by Tartaglia and Ferrari), acknowledged existence of imaginary numbers (based on -1) Devised formula for solution of quartic equations Invention of natural logarithms, popularized the use of the decimal point, Napiers Bones tool for lattice multiplication Clearing house for mathematical thought during 17th Century, Mersenne primes (prime numbers that are one less than a power of 2) Early development of projective geometry and point at infinity, perspective theorem Development of Cartesian coordinates and analytic geometry (synthesis of geometry and algebra), also credited with the first use of superscripts for powers or exponents Method of indivisibles paved way for the later development of infinitesimal calculus Discovered many new numbers patterns and theorems (including Little Theorem, Two-Square Thereom and Last Theorem), greatly extending knowlege of number theory, also contributed to probability theory Contributed towards development of calculus, originated idea of number line, introduced symbol for infinity, developed standard notation for powers Pioneer (with Fermat) of probability theory, Pascals Triangle of binomial coefficients Development of infinitesimal calculus (differentiation and integration), laid ground work for almost all of classical mechanics, generalized binomial theorem, infinite power series Independently developed infinitesimal calculus (his calculus notation is still used), also practical calculating machine using binary system (forerunner of the computer), solved linear equations using a matrix

French

French French

15981647 16011665

Bonaventura Italian Cavalieri Pierre de French Fermat

1616- John Wallis 1703

British

1623- Blaise Pascal French 1662 1643- Isaac Newton British 1727

1646- Gottfried 1716 Leibniz

German

1654- Jacob 1705 Bernoulli

Helped to consolidate infinitesimal calculus, developed a technique for solving separable differential equations, added a theory of permutations and combinations to probability theory, Bernoulli Numbers sequence, transcendental curves 1667- Johann Swiss Further developed infinitesimal calculus, including the 1748 Bernoulli calculus of variation, functions for curve of fastest descent (brachistochrone) and catenary curve 1667- Abraham de French De Moivre's formula, development of analytic geometry, 1754 Moivre first statement of the formula for the normal distribution curve, probability theory 1690- Christian German Goldbach Conjecture, Goldbach-Euler Theorem on perfect 1764 Goldbach powers 1707- Leonhard Swiss Made important contributions in almost all fields and 1783 Euler found unexpected links between different fields, proved numerous theorems, pioneered new methods, standardized mathematical notation and wrote many influential textbooks 1728- Johann Swiss Rigorous proof that is irrational, introduced hyperbolic 1777 Lambert functions into trigonometry, made conjectures on nonEuclidean space and hyperbolic triangles 1736- Joseph Louis Italian/French Comprehensive treatment of classical and celestial 1813 Lagrange mechanics, calculus of variations, Lagranges theorem of finite groups, four-square theorem, mean value theorem 1746- Gaspard French Inventor of descriptive geometry, orthographic projection 1818 Monge 1749- Pierre-Simon French Celestial mechanics translated geometric study of 1827 Laplace classical mechanics to one based on calculus, Bayesian interpretation of probability, belief in scientific determinism 1752- Adrien-Marie French Abstract algebra, mathematical analysis, least squares 1833 Legendre method for curve-fitting and linear regression, quadratic reciprocity law, prime number theorem, elliptic functions 1768- Joseph French Studied periodic functions and infinite sums in which the 1830 Fourier terms are trigonometric functions (Fourier series) 1777- Carl Friedrich German Pattern in occurrence of prime numbers, construction of 1825 Gauss heptadecagon, Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, exposition of complex numbers, least squares approximation method, Gaussian distribution, Gaussian function, Gaussian error curve, non-Euclidean geometry, Gaussian curvature 1789- AugustinFrench Early pioneer of mathematical analysis, reformulated and 1857 Louis Cauchy proved theorems of calculus in a rigorous manner, Cauchy's theorem (a fundamental theorem of group theory) 1790- August German Mbius strip (a two-dimensional surface with only one 1868 Ferdinand side), Mbius configuration, Mbius transformations, Mbius Mbius transform (number theory), Mbius function, Mbius inversion formula 1791- George British Inventor of symbolic algebra (early attempt to place 1858 Peacock algebra on a strictly logical basis)

Swiss

1791- Charles 1871 Babbage 17921856 18021829 18021860 18041851 18051865 18111832

British

Nikolai Russian Lobachevsky Niels Henrik Norwegian Abel Jnos Bolyai Hungarian Carl Jacobi William Hamilton variste Galois German Irish French

1815- George 1864 Boole 1815- Karl 1897 Weierstrass

British

German

1821- Arthur 1895 Cayley

British

1826- Bernhard 1866 Riemann

German

1831- Richard 1916 Dedekind 1834- John Venn 1923 1842- Marius 1899 Sophus Lie

German

British Norwegian

1845- Georg Cantor German 1918 1848- Gottlob 1925 Frege German

1849- Felix Klein 1925

German

Designed a "difference engine" that could automatically perform computations based on instructions stored on cards or tape, forerunner of programmable computer. Developed theory of hyperbolic geometry and curved spaces independendly of Bolyai Proved impossibility of solving quintic equations, group theory, abelian groups, abelian categories, abelian variety Explored hyperbolic geometry and curved spaces independently of Lobachevsky Important contributions to analysis, theory of periodic and elliptic functions, determinants and matrices Theory of quaternions (first example of a noncommutative algebra) Proved that there is no general algebraic method for solving polynomial equations of degree greater than four, laid groundwork for abstract algebra, Galois theory, group theory, ring theory, etc Devised Boolean algebra (using operators AND, OR and NOT), starting point of modern mathematical logic, led to the development of computer science Discovered a continuous function with no derivative, advancements in calculus of variations, reformulated calculus in a more rigorous fashion, pioneer in development of mathematical analysis Pioneer of modern group theory, matrix algebra, theory of higher singularities, theory of invariants, higher dimensional geometry, extended Hamilton's quaternions to create octonions Non-Euclidean elliptic geometry, Riemann surfaces, Riemannian geometry (differential geometry in multiple dimensions), complex manifold theory, zeta function, Riemann Hypothesis Defined some important concepts of set theory such as similar sets and infinite sets, proposed Dedekind cut (now a standard definition of the real numbers) Introduced Venn diagrams into set theory (now a ubiquitous tool in probability, logic and statistics) Applied algebra to geometric theory of differential equations, continuous symmetry, Lie groups of transformations Creator of set theory, rigorous treatment of the notion of infinity and transfinite numbers, Cantor's theorem (which implies the existence of an infinity of infinities) One of the founders of modern logic, first rigorous treatment of the ideas of functions and variables in logic, major contributor to study of the foundations of mathematics Klein bottle (a one-sided closed surface in fourdimensional space), Erlangen Program to classify geometries by their underlying symmetry groups, work on group theory and function theory

1854- Henri 1912 Poincar 1858- Giuseppe 1932 Peano

French

Italian

1861- Alfred North British 1947 Whitehead 1862- David Hilbert German 1943

1864- Hermann 1909 Minkowski 1872- Bertrand 1970 Russell 1877- G.H. Hardy 1947

German

British British

1878- Pierre Fatou 1929 1881- L.E.J. 1966 Brouwer 1887- Srinivasa 1920 Ramanujan 1893- Gaston Julia 1978 1903- John von 1957 Neumann 1906- Kurt Gdel 1978 1906- Andr Weil 1998

French Dutch

Indian

French Hungarian/ American Austria

Partial solution to three body problem, foundations of modern chaos theory, extended theory of mathematical topology, Poincar conjecture Peano axioms for natural numbers, developer of mathematical logic and set theory notation, contributed to modern method of mathematical induction Co-wrote Principia Mathematica (attempt to ground mathematics on logic) 23 Hilbert problems, finiteness theorem, Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem), Hilbert space, developed modern axiomatic approach to mathematics, formalism Geometry of numbers (geometrical method in multidimensional space for solving number theory problems), Minkowski space-time Russells paradox, co-wrote Principia Mathematica (attempt to ground mathematics on logic), theory of types Progress toward solving Riemann hypothesis (proved infinitely many zeroes on the critical line), encouraged new tradition of pure mathematics in Britain, taxicab numbers Pioneer in field of complex analytic dynamics, investigated iterative and recursive processes Proved several theorems marking breakthroughs in topology (including fixed point theorem and topological invariance of dimension) Proved over 3,000 theorems, identities and equations, including on highly composite numbers, partition function and its asymptotics, and mock theta functions Developed complex dynamics, Julia set formula Pioneer of game theory, design model for modern computer architecture, work in quantum and nuclear physics Incompleteness theorems (there can be solutions to mathematical problems which are true but which can never be proved), Gdel numbering, logic and set theory Theorems allowed connections between algebraic geometry and number theory, Weil conjectures (partial proof of Riemann hypothesis for local zeta functions), founding member of influential Bourbaki group Breaking of the German enigma code, Turing machine (logical forerunner of computer), Turing test of artificial intelligence Set and solved many problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory and probability theory Pioneer in modern chaos theory, Lorenz attractor, fractals, Lorenz oscillator, coined term butterfly effect Work on decision problems and Hilbert's tenth problem,

French

1912- Alan Turing 1954 1913- Paul Erds 1996 1917- Edward 2008 Lorenz 1919- Julia

British

Hungarian

American American

1985 19242010 1928-

Robinson Benot French Mandelbrot Alexander French Grothendieck American

1928- John Nash

1934- Paul Cohen 2007 1937- John Horton Conway

American

British

1947- Yuri Russian Matiyasevich 1953- Andrew Wiles 1966- Grigori Perelman British

Russian

Robinson hypothesis Mandelbrot set fractal, computer plottings of Mandelbrot and Julia sets Mathematical structuralist, revolutionary advances in algebraic geometry, theory of schemes, contributions to algebraic topology, number theory, category theory, etc Work in game theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations, provided insight into complex systems in daily life such as economics, computing and military Proved that continuum hypothesis could be both true and not true (i.e. independent from Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory) Important contributions to game theory, group theory, number theory, geometry and (especially) recreational mathematics, notably with the invention of the cellular automaton called the "Game of Life" Final proof that Hilberts tenth problem is impossible (there is no general method for determining whether Diophantine equations have a solution) Finally proved Fermats Last Theorem for all numbers (by proving the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture for semistable elliptic curves) Finally proved Poincar Conjecture (by proving Thurston's geometrization conjecture), contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology