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The finest mathematicians of all time who had a profound influence in the
development of pure and applied mathematics
| Name |
Period |
Country |
Field of Contribution |
| Descartes, Rene |
(1596-1650) | France |
Invented Analytical Geometry |
| Fermat, Pierre de |
(1601-1665) | France |
Number Theory, Analytical Geometry |
| Pascal, Blaise |
(1623-1662) | France |
Geometry, Theory of Probability |
| Gregory, James |
(1638-1675) | Scotland |
Numerical Interpolation |
| Newton, Isaac |
(1642-1727) | England |
Inventor of Differential and Integral Calculus |
| Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhem |
(1646-1716) | Germany |
Along with Newton he is also credited for invention of Calculus |
| Raphson, Joseph |
(1648-1715) | England |
Numerical Integration |
| Rolle, Michel |
(1652-1719) | France |
Rolle's Theorem |
| Bernoulli, Jakob |
(1654-1705) | Swiss |
Mathematical Probability and Elasticity |
| L'Hôpital, Guillaume François |
(1661-1704) | France |
L'Hôpital Rule |
| Bernoulli, Johann |
(1667-1748) | Swiss |
Development of Calculus |
| de Moivre, Abraham |
(1667-1754) | France |
Analytic Geometry and Theory of Probability |
| Taylor, Brook |
(1685-1731) | England |
Taylor Series |
| Maclaurin, Colin |
(1698-1746) | Scotland |
Maclaurin Series |
| Cramer, Gabriel |
(1704-1752) | Swiss |
The famous Cramer's Rule, Algebraic Curves |
| Euler, Leonhard |
(1707-1783) | Swiss |
This enormously creative genius made contribution to all
branches of Mathematics |
| Simpson, Thomas |
(1710-1761) | England |
Simpson's Rule of Integration |
| d'Alembert, Jean Le Rand |
(1717-1783) | France |
Wave Motion, Mechanics |
| Vandermonde, Alexandre |
(1735-1796) | France |
Group Theory |
| Lagrange, Joseph Louis |
(1736-1813) | France |
Calculus of Variations, Differential Equations, Number Theory |
| Laplace, Pierre Simon De |
(1749-1827) | France |
Potential Theory, Special Functions, Probability Theory |
| Legendre, Adrien Marie |
(1752-1833) | France |
Special Functions, Elliptic Integrals, Calculus of Variations |
| Parseval, Marc-Antoine |
(1755-1836) | France |
Parseval's Theorem |
| Argand, Jean Robert |
(1768-1822) | France |
Complex Numbers |
| Fourier, Jean-Baptiste Joseph |
(1768-1830) | France |
Fourier Series |
| Gauss, Carl Friedrich |
(1777-1855) | Germany |
Algebra, Number theory, Differential Equations, Differential Geometry, Complex Analysis, Numerical Analysis |
| Poisson, Simon Denis |
(1781-1840) | France |
Potential Theory, PDE, Probability |
| Bolzano, Bernard |
(1781-1848) | Austria |
Point Sets, Mathematical Logic |
| Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm |
(1784-1846) | Germany |
Special Functions |
| Navier, Claude Louis Marie |
(1785-1836) | France |
Fourier Series, Viscous Flow |
| Cauchy, Augustin-Louis |
(1789-1857) | France |
Father of Modern Analysis, Creator of Complex Analysis |
| Mobius, August Ferdinand |
(1790-1868) | Germany |
Theory of Surfaces, Projection Geometry |
| Green, George |
(1793-1841) | England |
Potential Theory, Vector Calculus |
| Saint-Venant, Adhémar Jean |
(1797-1886) | France |
Elasticity, Hydrostatics and Hydrodynamics |
| Ostrogradski, Michel |
(1801-1861) | Russia |
Green's Theorem |
| Abel, Niels Henrik |
(1802-1829) | Norway |
Group Theory, Elliptic Functions |
| Sturm, Jacques Charles |
(1803-1855) | France |
Differential Equations, Sturm-Liouville Equation |
| Jacobi, Carl Gustav Jacob |
(1804-1851) | Germany |
Elliptic Functions, PDE, Calculus of Variations |
| Dirichlet, Peter Gustav |
(1805-1859) | Germany |
Fourier Series, Number Theory |
| Hamilton, William Rowan |
(1805-1865) | Ireland |
Matrix Algebra |
| Liouville, Joseph |
(1809-1882) | France |
Complex Analysis, Special Functions, Differential Geometry |
| Kummer, Ernst |
(1810-1893) | Germany |
Ideal Numbers, Rings, Hypergeometric Series |
| Galois, Évariste |
(1811-1832) | France |
Group Theory, Algebra |
| Laurent, Pierre |
(1813-1854) | France |
Complex Analysis |
| Boole, George |
(1815-1864) | England |
Theory of Invariants, Mathematical Logic |
| Weierstrass, Karl |
(1815-1897) | Germany |
Complex Analysis, Calculus of Variations, Differential Equations |
| Frenet, Jean Frédéric |
(1816-1900) | France |
Theory of Space Curves |
| Serret, Joseph Alfred |
(1819-1885) | France |
Differential Geometry, Number theory |
| Stokes, George Gabriel |
(1819-1903) | Ireland |
Infinite Series, Viscous Flow |
| Chebyshev, Pafnuti |
(1821-1894) | Russia |
Approximation Theory, Theory of Numbers |
| Cayley, Arther |
(1821-1895) | England |
Matrix Theory, Differential Equations |
| Seidel, Philipp Ludwig von |
(1821-1896) | Germany |
Dioptics and Mathematical Analysis |
| Hermite, Charles |
(1822-1901) | France |
Algebra, Number Theory |
| Kronecker, Leopold |
(1823-1891) | Germany |
Algebra, Group Theory, Number Theory |
| Riemann, Bernhard |
(1826-1866) | Germany |
Riemanian Geometry, Conformal Mapping, Fourier Series |
| Lipschitz, Rudolph |
(1832-1903) | Germany |
Algebra, Number Theory, Differential Geometry |
| Neuman, Carl |
(1832-1925) | Germany |
Potential Theory |
| Laguerre, Edmond |
(1834-1886) | France |
Geometry, Theory of Infinite Series |
| Jordan, Marie Ennemond Camille |
(1838-1922) | France |
Theory of Finite Groups |
| Hankel, Hermann |
(1839-1873) | Germany |
Hankel functions and Hankel Transform. |
| Gibbs, Josiah Willard |
(1839-1903) | USA |
Vector Calculus, Mathematical Thermodynamics |
| Lie, Marius Sophus |
(1842-1899) | Norway |
Group Theory, Lie Groups |
| Lord Rayleigh |
(1842-1919) | England |
Theory of Waves, Hydrodynamics |
| Schwarz, Hermann Amandus |
(1843-1921) | Germany |
Conformal Mapping, Differential Equations, Calculus of
Variations |
| Canter, Georg |
(1845-1918) | Germany |
Creator of Set Theory |
| Frobenius, Georg |
(1849-1917) | Germany |
Theory of Matrices |
| Klein, Christian Felix |
(1849-1925) | Germany |
Non-Euclidean Geometry, Group Theory |
| Lamb, Horace |
(1849-1934) | England |
Fluid Dynamics, Acoustics |
| Heaviside, Oliver |
(1850-1925) | France |
Operational Calculus |
| Poincare, Jules Henri |
(1854-1912) | France |
Complex Analysis, Differential Equations, Topology |
| Stieltjes, Thomas Joannes |
(1856-1895) | Netherlands |
Riemann-Stieltjes Integral |
| Markov, Andrei Andreyevich |
(1856-1922) | Russia |
Markov Chain |
| Runge, Carl David |
(1856-1927) | Germany |
Numerical Analysis |
| Picard, Charles Emile |
(1856-1941) | France |
Complex Analysis, Algebraic Geometry |
| Volterra, Vito |
(1860-1940) | Italy |
Integro-Differential Equations, Mathematical Biology |
| Hilbert, David |
(1862-1943) | Germany |
Higher Algebra, Integral Equations, Calculus of
Variations, Functional Analysis |
| Padé Henri Eugène |
(1863-1953) | France |
Continued Fractions and Padé Approximations |
| Hadamard, Jacques |
(1865-1963) | France |
Theory of Power Series, PDE |
| Fredholm, Eric Ivar |
(1866-1927) | Sweden |
Integral Equations |
| Kutta, Wilhelm |
(1867-1944) | Germany |
Numerical Analysis |
| Levy-Civita, Tullio |
(1873-1941) | Italy |
Tensors, Absolute Differential Calculus |
| Schur, Issai |
(1875-1941) | Germany |
Group Theory |
| Lebesgue, Henri Léon |
(1875-1941) | France |
Lebesgue Measure |
| Landua, Edmond Georg |
(1877-1938) | Germany |
Analytic Number Theory |
| Hardy, Godfrey Harold |
(1877-1947) | England |
Number Theory, Continued Fractions |
| Birkhof, George David |
(1884-1944) | USA |
Differential Equations, Ergodic Theory |
| Lefschetz, Solomon |
(1884-1972) | USA |
Algebraic Topology |
| Weyl, Herman Klaus |
(1885-1955) | Germany |
Matrix Theory, Group Theory |
| Plancherel, Michel |
(1885-1967) | Swiss |
Harmonic Analysis, Algebra |
| Ramanujan, Srinivasa Aiyangar |
(1887-1920) | India |
Continued Fractions, Elliptic Functions |
| Courant, Richard |
(1888-1972) | Poland |
PDE, Numerical Analysis |
| Banach, Stefan |
(1892-1945) | Poland |
Integral Equations, Banach Space |
| Lanczos, Cornelius |
(1893-1974) | Italy |
Fourier Series, Matrix Theory, CG method |
| Hopf, Heinz |
(1894-1971) | Poland |
Algebraic Topology |
| Tricomi, Francesco Giacomo |
(1897-1978) | Italy |
PDE, Integral Transforms, Special Functions |
| Aiken, Howard Hathaway |
(1900-1973) | USA |
System of Differential Equations, Numerical Analysis |
| Petrovsky, Ivan Georgievich |
(1901-1973) | Russia |
PDE, Topology |
| Friedrichs, Kurt Otto |
(1901-1982) | Germany |
PDE, Quantum Theory of Fields |
| Dirac, Paul Adrian |
(1902-1984) | England |
Quantum Theory |
| Von Neuman, John |
(1903-1957) | Hungary |
Algebraic Geometry, Topology |
| Hodge, William Vallance Douglas |
(1903-1975) | Scotland |
PDE, Game Theory, Cellular Automata |
| Kolmogorov, Andrei Nikolaevich |
(1903-1987) | Russia |
Markov Processes, Lebesgue Measure Theory, Turbulence |
| Stone, Marshall Harvey |
(1903-1989) | USA |
Real Analysis, Functional Analysis, Boolean Algebra |
| de Rham, Georges |
(1903-1990) | Swiss |
Differential Topology |
| Lewy, Hans
| (1904-1988) | Germany |
PDE, Hyperbolic Equations |
| Householder, Alston Scott
| (1904-1993) | USA |
Numerical Analysis, Matrix Theory |
| Gödel, Kurt
| (1906-1978) | Austria |
Axiomatic Foundations, Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem |
| Weil, André
| (1906-1998) | France |
Number Theory, Algebraic Geometry |
| Sobolev, Sergei Lvovich |
(1908-1989) | Russia |
PDE, Sobolev Space |
| Collatz, Lothar |
(1910-1990) | Germany |
PDE, Numerical Analysis |
| Birkhoff, Garret |
(1911-1996) | USA |
PDE, Potential Theory |
| Turing, Alan Mathison |
(1912-1954) | England |
Probability Theory, Number Theory |
| Erdös, Paul |
(1913-1996) | Hungary |
Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Number Theory |
| Schwartz, Laurent |
(1915-2002) | France |
Theory of Distributions |
| Shannon, Claude Elwood |
(1916-2001) | USA |
Information Theory |
| Wilkinson, James Hardy |
(1919-1986) | England |
Theory of Matrix, Eigenvalue Problem |
| Batchelor, George Keith |
(1920-2000) | Australia |
Fluid Dynamics |
| Ladyzhenskaya, Olga A. |
(1922-2004) | Russia |
PDE, Fluid Dynamics |
| Oleinik, Olga Arsen'evna |
(1925-2001) | Russia |
PDE |
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Note: I arbitrarily decided to exclude the Living Mathematicians from this list!
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