TIMELINE OF MATHEMATICS

Ishango Bone It shows a multiplication table in cuneiform, which

may have been used by student scribes to learn
The Ishango Bone is possibly the oldest
mathematics.
mathematical artifact still in existence: it was
discovered in 1950, in the Democratic Republic of Sumerian Multiplication Table
Congo in central Africa, and is named after the
This tablet shows a multiplication table that was
region where it was found. It dates back to the
created around 2600 BCE in the Sumerian city of
Upper Paleolithic period of human history, and is
Shuruppak. It is one of the oldest mathematical
approximately 20,000 years old.
tablets we have ever discovered. The table has
The bone is 10 cm long and contains a series of three columns. The dots in the first two columns
notches, which many scientists believe were used represent distances ranging from around 6 meters
for counting. The grouping of the notches might to 3 kilometres. The third column contains the
even suggest some more advanced mathematical product of the first two, which is the area of a
understanding, like decimal numbers or prime rectangle with the given dimensions.
numbers.
Babylonian Tablet (Plimpton 322)
Mesopotamian Accounting Tokens
This Babylonian clay tablet, called Plimpton 322,
In ancient Mesopotamia, almost 10,000 years ago, was created around 1750 BCE in Sumeria, during
scribes and merchants started using small, three- the reign of Hammurabi the Great.
dimensional clay objects as counters, to represent
Babylonian Area Tablets
certain quantities, units or goods. Thousands of
these were found on archaeological sites across These two clay tablets from the Yale Babylonian
the Middle East, like these from Tepe Gawra in Iraq Collection were created between 1800 and 1600
(from around 4000 BCE): BCE, and contain exercises by student scribes, to
calculate the area of different geometric shapes.
The cone, sphere and flat disc were used to
Tablet YBC 7290 shows how to calculate the area
represent small, medium and large measures of
of a trapezium, by multiplying the average of the
grain. The tetrahedron probably measured the
bases and the average of the sides. Tablet YBC
amount of work done in one day.
11120 shows how to calculate the area of a circle,
These two tablets from Susa in Iran were created using the approximation π=3.
around 3200 BCE and used a more advanced
YBC 7289
technique: the counters were pressed into the clay
while it was still soft, to create a record: This circular tablet from the Yale Babylonian
Collection, called YBC 7289, was created around
Again, the triangular and circular impressions
1800 – 1600 BCE in ancient Babylon. It shows the
represent smaller and larger measures of grain.
geometric diagram of a square with its diagonals.
The patterns across the rest of the tablet were the
The cuneiform numerals indicate that one side of
official seals of the scribes.
the square is 30 units long, and show how to find
These simple markings actually laid the foundations the length of the diagonal: 302+302≈42 units.
for cuneiform, one of the first writing system in
Rhind Papyrus
history.
The Rhind Papyrus is one of the most famous
Mesopotamian Tablets
mathematical documents from ancient Egypt. It was
This is the oldest known clay tablet with written around 1550 BCE by a scribe called
mathematican computations – it was created Ahmose, who is maybe the earliest contributor to
around 2700 BCE in Sumer, one of the earliest maths in history, whose name we still know today.
civilisations that flourished in the Middle East. The papyrus is around 2 meters long and contains
84 problems about multiplication, division, fractions,
and geometry. It was probably used as a kind of
“textbook” by other scribes.
 Tomb of Menna 18th, 116th, and so on. This is an infinite number of
tasks, which means that you’ll never arrive!
Menna was a chief scribe in ancient Egypt, and in
charge of measuring the size of fields for farming, Democritus
inspected crop yields, reporting to the Pharaoh’s
The Greek mathematician Democritus (c. 460 –
central field administration, and calculating taxes.
370 BCE), may be the first person to speculate that
The wall paintings In his tomb show the different
all matter was made up of tiny atoms and is
measuring and calculating techniques used more
considered the “father of modern science”. He also
than 3,000 years ago. For example, in the first row,
made many discoveries in geometry, including the
you can see how long distances were measured
formula for the volume of prisms and cones.
using ropes with knots at regular intervals. The
tomb was built around 1420 BCE in the Valley of Plato
the Kings.
Plato (c. 425 – 347 BCE) was a philosopher in
Thales of Miletus ancient Greece, and – together with his teacher
Socrates and his student Aristotle – laid the very
Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 BCE) was a Greek
foundation of Western philosophy and science.
mathematician and philosopher.
Plato founded the Academy of Athens, the first
Thales is often recognised as the first scientist in
higher learning institution in the Western world. His
Western civilisation: rather than using religion or
many writings on philosophy and theology, science
mythology, he tried to explain natural phenomena
and mathematics, politics and justice, make him
using a scientific approach. He is also the first
one of the most influential thinkers of all time.
individual in history that has a mathematical
discovery named after him: Thales’ theorem. Eudoxus of Cnidus
Pythagoras of Samos Eudoxus of Cnidus (Εὔδοξος ὁ Κνίδιος, c. 390 –
337 BCE) was an ancient Greek astronomer and
Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – 495 BCE) was a
mathematician. Among his most enduring
Greek philosopher and mathematician. He is best
contributions to astronomy are his planetary
known for proving Pythagoras’ Theorem, but made
models.
many other mathematical and scientific discoveries.
Pythagoras tried to explain music in a mathematical History remembers him as the first to write
way, and discovered that two tones sound “nice” mathematical explanation of the planets. He
together (consonant) if the ratio of their frequencies developed the method of exhaustion in
is a simple fraction. mathematics, which laid the foundation for integral
calculus. Eudoxus traveled to several places
He also founded a school in Italy where he and his
around the Mediterranean to study. He studied
students worshipped mathematics almost like a
under Plato in Athens, Greece and under Egyptian
religion, while following a number of bizarre rules –
priests in Heliopolis, Egypt. He later returned to
but the school was eventually burned down by their
Athens to teach in Plato’s Academy during the time
adversaries.
Aristotle was a student.
Zeno of Elea
Aristotle
Zeno of Elea (c. 495 – 430 BCE) was a Greek
Aristotle (Ἀριστοτέλης, c. 384 – 322 BCE) was a
philosopher who his known for his famous
philosopher in Ancient Greece. Together with his
paradoxes, which have fascinated mathematicians
teacher Plato, he is considered the “Father of
for centuries.
Western Philosophy”. He was also the private tutor
One example is the paradox of motion: imagine that of Alexander the Great.
you want to run a 100 meter race. You first have to
Aristotle wrote about science, mathematics,
run half the distance (50 meters). But before doing
philosophy, poetry, music, politics, rhetoric,
that, you have to run a quarter of the distance (25
linguistics, and many other subjects. His work was
meters). Before running a quarter, you have to run
highly influential during the Middle Ages and into
the Renaissance, and his views on ethics and other
philosophical questions are still being discussed thousands of years and studied all around the
today. world, with thousands of new editions published
Aristotle is also the first known person to formally Archimedes
study logic, including its applications in science and
Archimedes (c. 287 – 212 BCE) was an ancient
mathematics.
Greek scientist and engineer, and one of the
Euclid of Alexandria greatest mathematicians of all time. He discovered
many concepts of calculus and worked in
Euclid of Alexandria (Εὐκλείδης, around 300
geometry, analysis and mechanics.
BCE) was a Greek mathematician and is often
called the father of geometry. His book The While taking a bath, Archimedes discovered a way
Elements first introduced Euclidean geometry, to determine the volume of irregular objects using
defines its five axioms, and contains many the amount of water they displaced when
important proofs in geometry and number theory – submerged. He was so excited by this discovery
including that there are infinitely many prime that he ran out on the street, still undressed, yelling
numbers. It is one of the most influential books ever “Eureka!” (Greek for “I have found it!”).
published, and was used as textbook in
As an engineer, he built ingenious defence
mathematics until the 19th century.
machines during the siege of his home city
Euclid taught mathematics in Alexandria, but not Syracuse in Sicily. After two years, the Romans
much else is known about his life. finally managed to enter, and Archimedes was
killed. His last words were “Do not disturb my
Pingala
circles” – which he was studying at the time.
Pingala (पिङ्गल) was an ancient Indian poet and
Archimedes Palimpsest
mathematician who lived around 300 BCE, but very
little is known about his life. He wrote the A palimpsest is a scroll or parchment from which
Chandaḥśāstra, where he analysed Sanskrit poetry the text has been washed or scraped off so that it
mathematically. It also contained the first known can be reused. This method was common in the
explanations of binary numbers, Fibonacci numbers Middle Ages – even for documents by brilliant
and Pascal’s triangle. scientists and mathematicians.
Bamboo Multiplication Table Archimedes of Syracuse lived in the 3rd Century
BCE and was one of the greatest mathematicians
Here you can see a set of 21 Bamboo Strip that
in history. A Greek copy of some of his work,
were created around 2300 years ago in China.
created around 1000 CE in Byzantium, was later
When arrenged correctly, they form a multiplication
overwritten by Christian monks in Palestine. More
table in base 10, written in ancient Chinese
recently, forgers added pictures to increase the
calligraphy.
value of the documents.
While earlier civilisations like the Babylonians
Eratosthenes of Cyrene
created multiplications tables in base 60, this is by
far the oldest known decimal multiplication table – Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – 195 BCE) was
and it looks very similar to what we still use today. a Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer,
historian, and poet. He spent much of his life in
Euclid’s Elements
Egypt, as head of the library of Alexandria. Among
Around 300 BCE, Euclid of Alexandria wrote The many other achievements, Eratosthenes calculated
Elements, collection of 13 books that contained the circumference of the Earth, measured the tilt of
mathematical definitions, postulates, theorems and the Earth’s axis of rotation, estimated the distance
proofs, and covering topics like geometry and to the sun, and created some of the first maps of
number theory. the world. He also invented the “Sieve of
Eratosthenes”, an efficient way to calculate prime
It is one of the most famous books ever written, and numbers.
one of the most influential works in the history of
mathematics. Copies were used as textbooks for Apollonius of Perga
Apollonius of Perga (c. 200 BCE) was a Greek Claudius Ptolemy
mathematician and astronomer best known for his
Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 – 170 CE) was a Greco-
work on the four conic sections.
Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer
Suàn shù shū and astrologer. He is best remembered for the
Ptolemaic or Geocentric model of our universe –
The Suàn shù shū (筭數書), which means Book on
that Earth is in the centre and all planets and the
Numbers and Computation, is one of the oldest
sun revolve around this.
mathematical manuscripts from China. It was
written around 200 BCE and consists of 200 strips While we know today this model is incorrect,
of bamboo. Ptolemy’s scientific impact is indisputable. He
developed trigonometric tables with many practical
There are 69 problems, each with a solution,
applications, which remained the most accurate for
covering topics like arithmetic, fractions, integer
many centuries. He also created detailed maps of
factorisation, geometric sequences, inverse
the Earth, and wrote about music theory and optics.
proportions, unit conversion, and error handling.
Geometry problems show how to find the area of Diophantus
circles and rectangles, as well as the volume of
Diophantus was a Hellenistic mathematician who
three-dimensional solids, while assuming that π=3.
lived in Alexandria. Most of his works are about
Hipparchus of Nicaea solving polynomial equations with several
unknowns. These are now called Diophantine
Hipparchus of Nicaea (Ἵππαρχος, c. 190 – 120
equation and remain an important area of research
BCE) was a Greek astronomer and
today.
mathematicians, and one of the greatest
astronomers of antiquity. It was while reading one of Diophantus’ books,
many centuries later, that Pierre de Fermat
Hipparchus made detailed observations of the night
proposed one of these equations had no solution.
sky and created the first comprehensive star
This became known as “Fermat’s Last Theorem”,
catalog in the western world. He is considered the
and was only solved in 1994.
father of trigonometry: he constructed trigonometric
tables and used these to reliably predict solar Liu Hui
eclipses. He also invented the astrolabe and solved
The mathematician and writer Liu Hui (c. 225 –
different problems in spherical trigonometry.
295 CE) lived during the Three Kingdoms period of
Heron of Alexandria China. He might be the first mathematician to
understand and use negative numbers, while
Heron of Alexandria (Ἥρων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, c.
writing a commentary with solutions for The Nine
10 – 70 CE) was a Greek mathematician and
Chapters on the Mathematical Art, a famous
engineer. He lived in the city of Alexandria in Egypt,
Chinese book about mathematics.
and is one of the greatest “experimenter” of
antiquity. Hypatia
His inventions include windmills, pantograph, as Hypatia (c. 360 – 415 CE) was a prominent
well as a radial steam turbine called aeolipile or astronomer and mathematician in ancient
Hero’s engine. Hero’s formula allows you to Alexandria. She was also the first female
calculate the area of any triangle, using just the mathematician whose life and work are reasonably
length of its three sides. well recorded. She edited or wrote commentaries
on many of the scientific books of her time, and
Nicomachus of Gerasa
constructed astrolabes and hydrometers.
Nicomachus of Gerasa (c. 60 – 120) was an
She was renowned during her life as a great
ancient Greek mathematician who also spent much
teacher, and she advised Orestes, the Roman
time thinking about the mystical properties of
prefect of Alexandria. Orestes’ feud with Cyril, the
numbers. His book Introduction to Arithmetic
bishop of Alexandria, led to Hypatia being
contains the first mention of perfect numbers.
murdered by a mob of Christians.
 Zu Chongzhi inscription was only recently rediscovered by Amir
Aczel.
Zu Chongzhi ( 祖 沖 之 , 429 – 500 CE) was a
Chinese astronomer, mathematician, writer, Many ancient civilisations, like the Greeks and
politician and inventor. Romans, did not have a “zero” in their numeral
system. From Cambodia, the concept was passed
He calculated Pi accurately to 7 decimal places – a
to India, where the Hindu-Arabic numeral system
record which was not surpassed until 800 years
originated. From there, it spread to the Middle East
later. To do this, he approximated a circle with a
and Europe, and we still use it today.
24,576-sided polygon.
Some ancient American civilisations like the Maya
Zu also discovered the formula 43πr3 for the
also used zero in their calendars, but their numbers
volume of a sphere. His precise astronomical
systems did not survive colonisation.
observations allowed him to create a new, more
accurate calendar and to predict solar eclipses. He Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi
also calculated that Jupiter takes almost 12 years
The Persian mathematician Muhammad Al-
to orbit the sun.
Khwarizmi (850 – 780 ,‫وارزمي‬Z‫ى الخ‬Z‫ )محمد بن موس‬lived
Aryabhata during the golden age of the Muslim Abbasid
regime in Baghdad. He worked at the “House of
Aryabhata (आर्यभट, 476 – 550) was one of the
Wisdom”, which contained the first large collection
first mathematicians and astronomers in the golden
of academic books since the destruction of the
age of Indian mathematics. He defined
Library of Alexandria.
trigonometric functions, solved simultaneous
quadratic equations, found approximations for π, Al-Khwarizmi has been called the “Father of
and realised that π is irrational. algebra” – in fact, the word algebra comes from the
Arabic title of his most important book: “The
Brahmagupta
Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion
The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta (c. 598 – and Balancing”. In it, he showed how to solve linear
668 CE) invented the rules for addition, subtraction and quadratic equations, and for many centuries, it
and multiplication with zero and negative numbers. was the main mathematics textbook at European
He was also an astronomer and made many other universities.
discoveries in mathematics. Unfortunately, his
Al-Khwarizmi also worked in astronomy and
writings did not contain any proofs, so we don’t
geography, and the word “algorithm” is named after
know how he derived his results.
him.
Bhaskara I
Al-Jabr
Bhaskara I (c. 600 – 680 CE) was an Indian
The title of the book Al-kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb
mathematician, and the first to write numbers in the
al-ğabr wa’l-muqābala ( ‫اْلِك َت اْب اْلُم ْخ َت َص ْر ِفْي ِحَس اْب اْلَج ْب ْر‬
Hindu decimal system with a circle as zero. His
‫َو اْلُم َقاَب َل ة‬, short just __Al-Jabr__) translates to The
commentary on Aryabhata’s work is one of the
Compendious Book of Calculations by Completion
oldest known Sanskrit prose works on mathematics
and Balancing.
and astronomy, and includes a unique rational
approximation for the sin function. It was written by the Persian mathematician
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī around 820
Khmer Zero
CE, and established Algebra as a new area of
The inscription on this stone includes the oldest mathematics. In fact, the name algebra derived
known use of the number zero: it dates back to the from the word al-ğabr in the title of the book.
Khmer civilisation in Cambodia, around the year
683 CE.
Part of the text contains the number 605. Can you
spot the dot that represents the zero? The
Al-Khwārizmī is often called the father of algebra. In Omar Khayyam (‫ر خّی ام‬ww‫عم‬, 1048 – 1131) was a
the book, he shows how to solve linear and Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet. He
quadratic equations, how to calculate the area and managed to classify and solve all cubic equations,
volume of certain geometric shapes, and he and found new ways to understand Euclid’s parallel
introduces the concept of “balancing” when solving axiom. Khayyam also designed the Jalali calendar,
equations. a precise solar calendar that is still used in some
countries.
Al-Ṣābiʾ Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī
Maqalah fi al-jabra wa-al muqabalah
Al-Ṣābiʾ Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī (‫ثابت بن قره‬,
c. 826 – 901 CE) was an Arabic mathematician, Maqalah fi al-jabra wa-al muqabalah, which
physician, astronomer, and translator. He lived in means Demonstration of Problems in Algebra, is a
Baghdad and was one of the first reformers of the manuscript written by the Persian mathematician
Ptolemaic system of our solar system. Omar Khayyam, around 1100 CE.
Thābit studied algebra, geometry, mechanics and Khayyam managed to classify and solve all cases
statics. He discovered an equation for finding of cubic equations, using the intersection of conic
amicable numbers: numbers which have the same sections. For example, on this page he shows how
sum of factors. He calculated the solution to the to solve equations of the form x3+cx+d=bx2 using
“chessboard problem” involving exponential series, the intersection of a circle and a hyperbola.
computed the volume of paraboloids, and found a
He also explored a triangle of binomial coefficients.
generalization of Pythagoras’ theorem.
In Iran, this triangle is called the Khayyam triangle,
Muhammad Al-Karaji while in Europe and America it is more commonly
known as Pascal’s traingle.
Muhammad Al-Karaji (‫ابو بکر محمد بن الحسن الکرجی‬, c.
953 – 1029) was a Persian mathematician and Bhaskara II
engineer. He was the first person to use proof by
Bhaskara II (1114 – 1185) was an Indian
induction, which allowed him to prove the binomial
mathematician and astronomer. He discovered
theorem.
some of the basic concepts of calculus, more than
Hasan Ibn al-Haytham 500 years before Leibnitz and Newton. Bhaskara
also established that division by zero yields infinity,
Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (‫ن بن‬ww‫ن بن الحس‬ww‫ الحس‬،‫و علي‬ww‫أب‬
and solved various quadratic, cubic, quartic and
‫الهيثم‬, c. 965 – 1050) lived in Cairo during the
Diophantine equations.
Islamic Golden Age, and studied mathematics,
physics, astronomy, philosophy, and medicine. He Dresden Codex of the Maya
was a proponent of the scientific method: the belief
Very few Mayan documents have survived until
that any scientific hypothesis must be verified using
today: one of them is the Dresden codex. It was
experiments or mathematical logic – centuries
created in the 13th century and describes Mayan
before European scientists during the Renaissance.
mathematics and astronomy.
Al-Haytham was particularly interested in optics
The Mayan number system had base 20 – using
and visual perception. He also derived a formula for
both fingers and toes for counting. Every digit from
the sum of fourth powers (14+24+34+…+n4), and
1 to 19 consists of circles (representing 1) and
he studied the link between algebra and geometry.
horizontal lines (representing 5). Can you work out
Jia Xian what all the numbers on this page are?
Jia Xian ( 賈 憲 , c. 1010 – 1070) was a Chinese The Dresden Codex was used as a divination
mathematician during the Song dynasty. He almanac, to record the date of astronomical events
described Pascal’s triangle, more than six centuries important for certain rituals. This fragment may
before Pascal, and used it to calculate square and contain the dates of eclipses of the planet Venus.
cube roots.
Lilavati
Omar Khayyam
The Lilāvatī is the first volume of a series of books Qin first developed a method for numerically
written by Bhāskara II, one of the greatest solving polynomial equations, which is now known
mathematicians and astronomers in medieval India. as Horner’s method. He found a formula for the
It was published around 1150, when he was 36 area of a triangle based on the length of its three
years old. sides, calculated the sum of arithmetic series, and
introduced a symbol for “zero” into Chinese
Bhāskara wrote the book for his daughter, and the
mathematics.
title actually means “playful”. He writes about
problem-solving, number sequences, Pythagoras’ Qin also invented Tianchi basins, which were used
theorem, combinatorics, and many other topics. to measure rainfall and gather meteorological data
important for farming.
Leonardo Pisano
Yang Hui
Leonardo Pisano, commonly known as
Fibonacci (1175 – 1250) was an Italian Yang Hui ( 楊 輝 , c. 1238 – 1298) was a Chinese
mathematician. He is best known for the number mathematician and writer during the Song dynasty.
sequence named after him: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, … He studied magic squares and magic circles, the
binomial theorem, quadratic equations, as well as
Fibonacci is also responsible for popularising the
Yang Hui’s triangle (known in Europe as Pascal’s
Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, …) in Europe, which
triangle).
was still using Roman numerals (I, V, X, D, …) in
the 12th century CE. He explained the decimal Yang also wrote geometric proofs, and was known
system in a book called “Liber Abaci”, a practical for his ability to manipulate decimal fractions.
textbook for merchants.
Zhu Shijie
Li Ye
Zhu Shijie ( 朱 世 杰 , 1249 – 1314) was one of the
Li Ye ( 李 冶 , 1192 – 1279) was a Chinese greatest Chinese mathematicians. In his book Jade
mathematician. He improved methods for solving Mirror of the Four Unknowns, he showed how to
polynomial equations, and was one of the first solve 288 different problem using systems of
polynomial equations and four variables
Chinese scientists to propose that the Earth is
(called Heaven, Earth, Man and Matter).
spherical.
Zhu made extensive use of Pascal’s triangle. He
Nasir al-Din Tusi also invented rules for solving systems of linear
Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201 – 1274, ‫ی‬w‫دین طوس‬w‫)نصیر ال‬, equations – predating our modern matrix methods
by many centuries.
also known as Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-
Siyuan Yujian
Hasan al-Tūsī, was an architect, philospher,
physician, scientist, and theologian, as well as a The Siyuan Yujian ( 四元玉鉴), which means Jade
prolific writer. Mirror of the Four Unknowns, is a masterpiece of
Chinese mathematics, published in 1303 by Zhu
Many consider Al-Din Tusi to be the father of
Shijie. It consists of four individual books and 288
trigonometry, and he was perhaps the first person
different problems.
to work on trigonometry independent of astronomy.
He also proposed and studied the Tusi couple: a Zhu shows how to solve problems using systems of
device in which a circle rolls around the inside of a polynomial equations with up to four unknown
larger circle with twice the diameter. variables, 天 (Heaven), 地 (Earth), 人 (Man) and 物
(Matter). He explains how to eliminate variables
Qin Jiushao
and how to find the side length of two and three-
Qin Jiushao ( 秦 九 韶 , c. 1202 – 1261) was a dimensional shapes given their volume or area.
Chinese mathematician, inventor and politician. In
To solve some of these problems, Zhu even used
his book Shùshū Jiǔzhāng, he published numerous
the numbers in Pascal’s triangle, more than 300
mathematical discoveries, including the important
years before Pascal was born!
Chinese remainder theorem, and wrote about
surveying, meteorology and the military. Nicole Oresme
Nicole Oresme (c. 1323 – 1382) was an important Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) was a German
French mathematician, philosopher and bishop, astronomer and mathematician. He was the
living in the late Middle Ages. He invented imperial mathematician in Prague, and he is best
coordinate geometry, long before Descartes, was known for his three laws of planetary motion.
the first to use fractional exponents, and worked on Kepler also worked in optics, and invented an
infinite series. He wrote about economics, physics, improved telescope for his observations.
astronomy and theology, and was an advisor to
Marin Mersenne
King Charles V of France.
Marin Mersenne (1588 – 1648) was a French
Madhava of Sangamagramma
mathematician and priest. Because of the frequent
Madhava of Sangamagramma (c. 1340 – 1425) exchanges with his contacts in the scientific world
was a mathematician and astronomer from during the 17th century, he has been called the “the
southern India. All of his original work has been post-box of Europe”.
lost, but he had a great impact on the development
Today we mostly remember him for the Mersenne
of mathematics.
primes, prime numbers that can be written as 2n−1.
Madhava first used infinite series to approximate Most of the largest known primes are of this type.
trigonometric functions, which was a significant He also studied acoustics and the harmonics of a
step towards the development of calculus many vibrating string, and wrote about theology and
centuries later. He also studied geometry and philosophy.
algebra, and found an exact formula for π (also
Girard Desargues
using infinite series).
Girard Desargues (1591 – 1661) was a French
Incan Quipu
mathematician, engineer, and architect. He
Quipu are a recording system that was used by the designed numerous buildings in Paris and Lyon,
Incan civilisation in South America around 1400 – helped construct a dam, and invented a mechanism
1560. They consist of many strings with small for raising water using epicycloids.
knots, all of which are attached to one larger rope.
In mathematics, Desargues is considered the father
The type and position of the knots, as well as the
of projective geometry. This is a special kind of
colour of the strings, was used to record numbers,
geometry in which parallel lines meet at at “point at
dates and maybe even text.
infinity”, the size of shapes does not matter (only
Galileo Galilei their proportions), and all four conic sections (circle,
ellipse, parabola and hyperbola) are essentially the
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) was an Italian
same.
astronomer, physicist and engineer. He used one of
the first telescopes to make observations of the René Descartes
night sky, where he discovered the four largest
René Descartes (1596 – 1650) was a French
moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, sunspots,
mathematician and philosopher, and one of the key
and much more.
figures in the Scientific Revolution. He refused to
Galileo, sometimes called the “father of modern accept the authority of previous philosophers, and
science”, also studied the motion of objects in free one of his best-known quotes is “I think, therefore I
fall, kinematics, material science, and invented the am”.
thermoscope (an early thermometer).
Descartes is the father of analytical geometry,
He was a vocal proponent of Heliocentrism, the which allows us to describe geometric shapes
idea that the Sun was at the centre of our solar using algebra. This was one of the prerequisites,
system. This eventually led to him being tried by which allowed Newton and Leibnitz to invent
the Catholic Inquisition: Galileo was forced to calculus a few decades later.
recant and spent the rest of his life under house
He Is credited with the first use of superscripts for
arrest.
powers or exponents, and the cartesian coordinate
Johannes Kepler system is named after him.
 Bonaventura Cavalieri His work laid foundations for a distinct type of
Japanese mathematics, known as wasan ( 和 算 ),
Bonaventura Cavalieri (1598 – 1647) was an
which was continued by his successors.
Italian mathematician and monk. He developed a
precursor to infinitesimal calculus, and is Isaac Newton
remembered for Cavalieri’s principle to find the
Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726) was an English
volume of solids in geometry.
physicist, mathematician, and astronomer, and one
Cavalieri also worked in optics and mechanics, of the most influential scientists of all time. He was
introduced logarithms to Italy, and exchanged many a professor at Cambridge University, and president
letters with Galileo Galilei. of the Royal Society in London.
Pierre de Fermat In his book Principia Mathematica, Newton
formulated the laws of motion and gravity, which
Pierre de Fermat (1607 – 1665) was a French
laid the foundations for classical physics and
mathematician and lawyer. He was an early
dominated our view of the universe for the next
pioneer of calculus, as well as working in number
three centuries.
theory, probability, geometry and optics.
Among many other things, Newton was one of the
In 1637, he wrote a short note in the margin of one
inventors of calculus, built the first reflecting
of his textbooks, claiming that the equation
telescope, calculated the speed of sound, studied
an+bn=cn has no integer solutions for n>2, and that
the motion of fluids, and developed a theory of
he had a “marvellous proof, which this margin is too
colour based on how prisms split sunlight into a
narrow to contain”. This became known as
rainbow-coloured spectrum.
Fermat’s Last Theorem, and one of the most
famous unsolved problems in mathematics – until it Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
was finally proven in 1994.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 – 1716) was a
John Wallis German mathematician and philosopher. Among
many other achievements, he was one of the
The English mathematician John Wallis (1616 –
inventors of calculus, and created some of the first
1703) contributed to the development of calculus,
mechanical calculators.
invented the number line and the symbol ∞ for
infinity, and served as chief cryptographer for Leibniz believed that our universe is the “best
Parliament and the royal court. possible universe” that God could have created,
while allowing us to have a free will. He was a great
Blaise Pascal
advocate of rationalism, and also made
Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) was a French contributions to physics, medicine, linguistics, law,
mathematician, physicist and philosopher. He history, and many other subjects.
invented some of the first mechanical calculators,
Giovanni Ceva
as well as working on projective geometry,
probability and the physics of the vacuum. Giovanni Ceva (1647 – 1734) was an Italian
mathematician, physicist, and hydraulic engineer.
Most famously, Pascal is remembered for naming
One of his most enduring contributions to
Pascal’s Triangle, an infinite triangle of numbers
mathematics is Ceva’s Theorem, about the
with some amazing properties.
relationship between different line segments in a
Seki Takakazu triangle. However, its publication in De lineis rectis
was received with little fanfair, and his discoveries
Seki Takakazu ( 関 孝 和 , 1642 – 1708) was an weren’t fully recognized until the 1800s.
important Japanese mathematician and writer. He
created a new algebraic notation system and Jacob Bernoulli
studied Diophantine equations. He also developed
on infinitesimal calculus – independently of Leibniz
and Newton in Europe.
Jacob Bernoulli (1655 – 1705) was a Swiss made great advances in both fields, including
mathematician, and one of the many important creating detailed astronomical tables and
scientists in the Bernoulli family. In fact, he had a publishing multiple textbooks.
deep academic rivalry with several of his brothers
Luca Pacioli
and sons.
Luca Pacioli was an influential Italian friar and
Bernoulli made significant advances to the calculus
mathematician, who invented the standard symbols
that was invented by Newton and Leibnitz, created
for plus and minus (+ and –). He was one of the
the field of calculus of variations, discovered the
first accountants in Europe, where he introduced
fundamental constant e, developed techniques for
double-entry book-keeping. Pacioli collaborated
solving differential equations, and much more.
with Leonardo da Vinci, and also wrote about
He published the first substantial work about arithmetic and geometry.
probability, including permutations, combinations
Nicolaus Copernicus
and the law of large numbers, he proved the
binomial theorem, and derived many of the Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) was a Polish
properties of Bernoulli numbers. mathematician, astronomer and lawyer. During his
life, most people believed in the Geocentric model
Abraham de Moivre
of the universe, with Earth at the centre and
Abraham de Moivre (1667 – 1754) was a French everything else rotating around it. Copernicus
mathematician who worked in probability and created a new model, where the sun is at the
analytic geometry. He is most remembered for de centre, and Earth moves around it on a circle. He
Moivre’s formula, which links trigonometry and also predicted that Earth rotates around its axis
complex numbers. once every day.
De Moivre discovered the formula for the normal Da Vinci’s Polyhedra
distribution in probability, and first conjectured the
When the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli
central limit theorem. He also found a non-recursive
needed illustrations for his book De divina
formula for Fibonacci numbers, linking them to the
proportione (published in 1509), he asked
golden ratio φ.
Leonardo Da Vinci, a renown artist and former
Robert Simson student.
Robert Simson (1687 – 1768) was a Scottish Da Vinci created 60 different images of polyhedra.
mathematician who studied ancient Greek He often made a solid version, as well as a
geometers. He studied at the University of transparent version that only shows the edges,
Glasgow, and later returned as a professor. The which was a completely new way to represent
Simson line in a triangle is named after him, which these 3-dimensional solids.
can be constructed using the circumcircle.
Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia
Christian Goldbach
Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia (1499 – 1557) was an
Christian Goldbach (1690 – 1764) was a Prussian Italian mathematician, engineer and bookkeeper.
mathematician and contemporary of Euler, Leibniz He published the first Italian translations of
and Bernoulli. He was tutor of Russian Tsar Peter Archimedes and Euclid, found a formula for solving
II, and is remembered for his “Goldbach any cubic equation (including the first real
Conjecture“. The Incans used a decimal number application of complex numbers), and used
system like we do today. The position of a knot mathematics to investigate the projectile motion of
indicates the place value (ones, tens, hundreds, cannonballs.
…). Different types of knots (e.g. figure-8 knots and
Gerolamo Cardano
long-knots) represents the digit from 0 to 9.
The Italian Gerolamo Cardano (1501 – 1576) was
Johann Müller Regiomontanus
one of the most influential mathematicians and
Johann Müller Regiomontanus (1436 – 1476) scientists of the Renaissance. He investigated
was a German mathematician and astronomer. He hypercycloids, published Tartaglia’s and Ferrari’s
solution for cubic and quartic equations, was the John Napier
first European to systematically use negative
John Napier (1550 – 1617) was a Scottish
numbers, and even acknowledged the existence of
mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He
imaginary numbers (based on −1).
invented logarithms, popularised the use of the
Pedro Nunes decimal point, and created “Napier’s bones”, a
manual calculating device that helped with
Pedro Nunes (1502 – 1578) was a Portuguese
multiplication and division.
mathematician and astronomer. As Royal
Cosmographer of Portugal he taught navigational Émilie du Châtelet
skills to many sailors and explorers.
Émilie du Châtelet (1706 – 1749) was a French
Nunes first noticed that if a ship always follows the scientist and mathematician. As a women, she was
same compass bearing, it won’t travel on a straight often excluded from the scientific community, but
line or great circle. Instead, it will follow a path she built friendships with renown scholars, and had
called a rhumb line or loxodrome, which spirals a long affair with the philosopher Voltaire.
towards the North or South pole.
She applied her mathematical ability while
Aztec Dates from Codex Mendoza gambling, and used her winnings to buy books and
laboratory equipment, and made important
The Codex Mendoza is a description of the Aztec
advanced regarding the concepts like energy and
civilisation, which was commissioned in 1541 by
energy conservation.
Antonio de Mendoza. Its three sections explain the
history and daily life of the Aztec people and list the Around the age of 42, Du Châtelet became
different rulers and towns that were conquered. The pregnant again. At the time, without adequate
codex also contains examples of the Aztec healthcare, this was very dangerous for women of
calendar system, which you can see along the blue her age. She was also working on a French
bar. Each of the symbols represents a date, and translation of Newton’s book Principia, which
consists of a small image combined with several containes the basic laws of physics.
small circles. The Aztec calendar used 20 day
Du Châtelet was determined to finish the
signs represented by a small image (crocodile,
translation, as well as a detailed commentary with
wind, house, lizard, snake, rabbit, water, etc.),
additions and clarifications, and often worked 18
together with up to 13 circles. This gives a cycle of
hours per day. She died just a few days after giving
20 × 13 = 260 days.
birth to a daughter, but her completed work was
François Viète published posthumously, and is still used today.
François Viète (1540 – 1603) was a French Maria Gaetana Agnesi
mathematician, lawyer, and advisor to Kings Henry
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718 – 1799) was an
III and IV of France. He made significant advances
Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and
in Algebra, and first introduced the use of letters to
humanitarian. Agnesi was the first western woman
represent variables. Viète discovered the
to write a mathematics textbook. She was also the
connection between the roots and coefficients of a
first woman to be appointed professor at a
polynomial, called Viète’s formula. He also wrote
university. Her textbook, the Analytical Institutions
books about geometry and trigonometry, including
for the use of Italian youth combined differential
calculating π to 10 decimal places using a polygon
and integral calculus, and was an international
with 393216 sides.
success. Agnesi also studied a bell-shaped curve
Simon Stevin described by the equation y=A3X2+a2. This
function is now called the Witch of Agnesi. The
Simon Stevin (1548 – 1620) was Flemish
strange name might come from a pun in the Italian
mathematician and engineer. He was one of the
language, were the word “versiera” for “witch”
first people to use and write about decimal
sounds similar to the ropes used when sailing.
fractions, and made many other contributions to
science and engineering. Johann Lambert
Johann Lambert (1728 – 1777) was a Swiss then US secretary of state, to argue against
mathematician, physicist, astronomer and slavery.
philosopher. He was the first to prove that π is an
Joseph-Louis Lagrange
irrational number, and he introduced hyperbolic
trigonometric functions. Lambert also worked on Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736 – 1813) was an
geometry and cartography, created map Italian mathematician who succeeded Leonard
projections, and foreshadowed the discovery of Euler as the director of the Academy of Sciences in
non-Euclidean spaces. Berlin. He worked on analysis and the calculus of
variations, invented new methods for solving
Leonhard Euler
differential equations, proved theorems in number
Leonhard Euler (1707 – 1783) was one the theory, and laid the foundations of group theory.
greatest mathematicians in history. His work spans Lagrange also wrote about classical and celestial
all areas of mathematics, and he wrote 80 volumes mechanics, and helped establish the metric system
of research. Euler was born in Switzerland and in Europe.
studied in Basel, but lived most of his life in Berlin,
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Prussia, and St. Petersburg, Russia. Euler invented
much of the modern mathematical terminology and Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749 – 1827) was a
notation, and made important discoveries in French mathematician and scientist. He is
calculus, analysis, graph theory, physics, sometimes called the “Newton of France”, because
astronomy, and many other topics. of his wide range of interests, and the enormous
impact of his work. In a five-volume book, Laplace
Daniel Bernoulli
translated problems in celestial mechanics from
Daniel Bernoulli (1700 – 1782) was a Swiss geometry to calculus. This opened up a wide range
mathematician and physicist. He was one of the of new strategies for understanding our universe.
many famous scientists from the Bernoulli family – He proposed that the solar system developed from
including his father Johann, his uncle Jacob, and a rotating disk of dust. Laplace also pioneered the
his brother Nicholas. Daniel Bernoulli showed that field of probability, and showed how probability can
as the speed of a fluid increases, its pressure help us understand data from the physical world.
decreases. Now called Bernoulli’s principle, this is
Adrien-Marie Legendre
the mechanism used by airplane wings and
combustion engines. He also made important Adrien-Marie Legendre (1752 – 1833) was an
discoveries in probability and statistics, and first important French mathematician. He studied elliptic
encountered Bessel functions. At the age of 34, he integrals and their usage in physics. He also found
was banned from his father’s house for beating him a simple proof that π is irrational, and the first proof
at an award from the Paris Academy, for which they that
both submitted an entry.
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Benjamin Banneker
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 – 1855) was arguably
Benjamin Banneker (1731 – 1806) was one of the the greatest mathematician in history. He made
first African-American mathematicians, and both his groundbreaking discoveries in just about every field
parents were former slaves. He was largely self- of mathematics, from algebra and number theory to
educated, worked as a surveyor, farmer, and statistics, calculus, geometry, geology and
scientist, and wrote several successful “almanacs” astronomy. According to legend, he corrected a
about astronomy. mistake in his father‘s accounting at the age of 3,
and found a way to quickly add up all integers from
1 to 100 at the age of 8. He made his first important
At the age of 21, Banneker designed and built a discoveries while still a teenager, and later tutored
wooden clock. He helped survey the land that many other famous mathematicians as Professor.
would later become the District of Columbia, the
August Ferdinand Möbius
capital of the United States, and he accurately
predicting a solar eclipse in 1791. Banneker also
shared some of his work with Thomas Jefferson,
August Ferdinand Möbius (1790 – 1868) was a invented the first mechanical computer (the
German mathematician and astronomer. He Difference engine), and an improved,
studied under Carl Friedrich Gauss in Göttingen programmable version (the Analytical Engine). In
and is best known for his discovery of the Möbius theory, these machines could automatically perform
strip: a non-orientable two-dimensional surface with certain calculations stored on cards or tape.
only one side. (However, it was independently However, due to the high production costs, they
discovered by Johann Benedict Listing just a few were never fully completed during Babbage’s
months earlier.) lifetime. In 1991, a functional replica was
constructed at the Science Museum in London.
Many other concepts in mathematics are named
after him, including the Möbius plane, Möbius Nikolai Lobachevsky
transformations, the Möbius function μn in number
Nikolai Lobachevsky (Никола́ й Лобаче́ вский,
theory, and the Möbius configuration of two
1792 – 1856) was a Russian mathematician, and
mutually inscribed tetrahedra.
one of the founders of non-Euclidean geometry. He
Mary Somerville managed to show that you can build up a
consistent type of geometry in which Euclid’s fifth
Mary Somerville (1780 – 1872) was a Scottish
axiom (about parallel lines) does not hold.
scientist and writer. In her obituary, she was called
the “Queen of Science”. Somerville first suggested Augustin-Louis Cauchy
the existence of Neptune and was also an excellent
Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789 – 1857) was a
writer and communicator of science.
French mathematician and physicist. He
Joseph Fourier contributed to a wide range of areas in
mathematics, and dozens of theorems are named
Joseph Fourier (1768 – 1830) was a French
after him. Cauchy formalised calculus and analysis,
mathematician, and a friend and advisor of
by reformulating and proving results where
Napoleon. In addition to his mathematical research,
previous mathematicians were much more careless
he is also credited with the discovery of the
and imprecise. He founded the field of complex
greenhouse effect. While travelling to Egypt,
analysis, studied permutation groups, and worked
Fourier became particularly fascinated with heat.
on optics, fluid dynamics and elasticity theory.
He studied heat transfer and vibrations, and
discovered that any periodic function can be written William Rowan Hamilton
as an infinite sum of trigonometric functions: a
William Rowan Hamilton (1805 – 1865) was an
Fourier series.
Irish mathematician and child prodigy. He invented
Marie-Sophie Germain quaternions, the first example of a “non-
commutative algebra”, which has important
Marie-Sophie Germain (1776 – 1831) decided that
applications in mathematics, physics and computer
she wanted to be a mathematician at the age of 13,
science. He first came up with the idea while
after reading about Archimedes. Unfortunately, as a
walking along the Royal Canal in Dublin, and
woman, she was faced with significant opposition.
carved the fundamental formula into a stone bridge
Her parents tried to prevent her from studying when
he passed: i2=j2=k2=ijk=−1.Hamilton also made
she was young, and she never received a post at a
significant contributions to physics, including optics
university. Germain was a pioneer in understanding
and Newtonian mechanics
the mathematics of elastic surfaces, for which she
won the grand prize from the Paris Academy of Évariste Galois
Sciences. She also made considerable progress in
The French mathematician Évariste Galois (1811
solving Fermat’s Last Theorem, and regularly
– 1832) had a short and tragic life, yet he invented
corresponded with Carl Friedrich Gauss.
two entirely new fields of mathematics: Group
Charles Babbage theory and Galois theory. While still in his teens,
Galois proved that there is no general solution for
Charles Babbage (1791 – 1871) was a British
polynomial equations of
mathematician, philosopher and engineer. He is
often called the “father of the computer”, having Giuseppe Peano
The Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano (1858 definition of integration, studied differential
– 1932) published over 200 books and papers geometry which laid the foundation for general
about logic and mathematics. He formulated the relativity, and made groundbreaking discoveries
Peano axioms, which became the basis for rigorous regarding the distribution of prime numbers.
algebra and analysis, developed the notation for
David Hilbert
logic and set theory, constructed continuous,
space-filling curves (Peano curves), and worked on David Hilbert (1862 – 1943) was one of the most
the method of proof by induction. Peano also influential mathematicians of the 20th century. He
developed a new, international language, Latino worked on almost every area of mathematics, and
sine flexione, which was a simplified version of was particularly interested in building a formal,
Latin. logical foundation for maths. Hilbert worked in
Göttingen (Germany), where he tutored numerous
Henri Poincaré
students who later became famous
The French mathematician Henri Poincaré (1854 – mathematicians. During the International Congress
1912) is often described as the last universalist, of Mathematicians in 1900, he presented a list of 23
meaning that he worked in every field of unsolved problems. These set the course for future
mathematics known during his lifetime. Poincaré is research – and four of them are still unsolved
one of the founders of the field of Topology, and he today!
came up with the Poincaré conjecture. This was
Bertrand Russell
one of the famous unsolved problems in
mathematics, until it was proven in 2003 by Grigori Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970) was a British
Perelman. He also found a partial solution for the philosopher, mathematician and author. He is
“three body problem”, and discovered that the widely considered to be one of the most important
motion of three stars or planets in space can be logicians of the 20th century. Russell co-wrote the
completely unpredictable. This laid the foundation “Principia Mathematica”, where he attempted to
for modern Chaos theory. Poincaré was the first to create a formal foundation for mathematics using
propose gravitational waves, and his work on logic. His work has had a significant impact not just
Lorentz transformations was the basis upon which on maths and philosophy, but also on linguistics,
Albert Einstein built his theory of special relativity artificial intelligence and metaphysics.
Amalie Emmy Noether Russell was a passionate pacifist and anti-war
activist. In 1950, he received the Nobel Prize in
Amalie Emmy Noether (1882 – 1935) was a
Literature, for his work “in which he champions
German mathematician who made important
humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”.
discoveries in abstract algebra and theoretical
physics, including the connection between Albert Einstein
symmetry and conservation laws. She is often
described as the most influential female Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) was a German
mathematician. physicist, and one of the most influential scientists
in history. He received the Nobel Prize for physics
Richard Dedekind and TIME magazine called him the person of the
20th century. Einstein triggered the most significant
Richard Dedekind (1831 – 1916) was a German
transformation in our view of the universe since
mathematician and one of the students of Gauss.
Newton. He realised that classical, Newtonian
He developed many concepts in set theory, and
physics was no longer enough to explain certain
invented Dedekind cuts as the formal definition of
physical phenomenons. At the age of 26, during his
real numbers. He also gave the first definitions of
“miracle year”, he published four groundbreaking
number fields and rings, two important constructs in
scientific papers that explained the photoelectric
abstract algebra.
effect and Brownian motion, introduced special
Bernhard Riemann relativity, and derived the formula E=mc2, which
states that energy € and mass (m) are equivalent.
Bernhard Riemann (1826 – 1866) was a German
mathematician working in the fields of analysis and Srinivasa Ramanujan
number theory. He came up with the first rigorous
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887 – 1920) grew up in information theory and complexity theory. During
India, where he received very little formal education World War II, Kolmogorov used statistics to predict
in mathematics. Yet, he managed to develop new the distribution of bombings in Moscow. He also
ideas in complete isolation, while working as a clerk played an active role in reforming the education
in a small shop. After a few failed attempts to system in the Soviet Union, and developing a
contact other mathematicians, he wrote a letter to pedagogy for gifted children.
the famous G.H. Hardy. Hardy immediately
John von Neumann
recognised Ramanujan’s genius, and arranged for
him to travel to Cambridge in England. Together, John von Neumann (1903 – 1957) was a
they made numerous discoveries in number theory, Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist and
analysis, and infinite series. Unfortunately, computer scientist. He made important
Ramanujan soon fell ill and was forced to return to contributions to pure mathematics, was a pioneer of
India, where he died at the age of 32. During his quantum mechanics, and developed concepts like
short life, Ramanujan proved over 3000 theorems game theory, cellular automata, self-replicating
and equations, on a wide range of topics. His work machines, and linear programming. During World
created entirely new areas of maths, and his War II, von Neumann was a key member of the
notebooks were studied by other mathematicians Manhattan Project, working on the development of
for many decades after his death. the hydrogen bomb. He later consulted for the
Atomic Energy Commission and the US Air Force.
Elbert Cox
Kurt Gödel
Elbert Cox (1895 – 1969) was the first African-
American mathematician to receive a PhD. Kurt Gödel (1906 – 1978) was an Austrian
Universities in England and Germany refused to mathematician who later immigrated to America,
accept his thesis at the time, but Japan’s Tohoku and is considered one of the greatest logicians in
Imperial University did.Cox taught at Howard history. At the age of 25, just after finishing his
University in the United States, he studied doctorate in Vienna, he published his two
polynomial solutions to differential equations, incompleteness theorems. These state that any
generalised the Boole summation formula, and (consistent and sufficiently powerful) mathematical
compared different grading systems. system contains certain statements that are true
but cannot be proven. In other words, mathematics
Maurits Cornelis Escher
contains certain problems that are impossible to
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898 – 1972) was a solve.This result had a profound impact on the
Dutch artist who created sketches, woodcuts and development and philosophy of mathematics.
lithographs of mathematically inspired objects and Gödel also found an example of these “impossible
shapes: including polyhedra, tessellations and theorems”: the continuum hypothesize
impossible shapes. He graphically explored
André Weil
concepts like symmetry, infinity, perspective and
non-euclidean geometry. André Weil (1906 – 1998) was one of the most
influential French mathematicians in the 20th
Mary Lucy Cartwright
century. He was one of the founders of the
Mary Lucy Cartwright (1900 – 1998) was a British Bourbaki group, a group of mathematicians working
mathematician and one of the pioneers of Chaos under the collective pseudonym Nicolas Bourbaki.
theory. Together with Littlewood, she discovered The goal of the Bourbaki group was to unify all of
curious solutions to a problem: an example of what mathematics with a formal, axiomatic foundation.
we now call the Butterfly effect Weil believed that many problems in algebra and
number theory had analogous versions in algebraic
Andrey Kolmogorov
geometry and topology. These are known as Weil
Andrey Kolmogorov (Андре́ й Колмого́ ров, conjectures, and became the basis for both
1903 – 1987) was a Soviet mathematician. He disciplines. They also have applications in fields
made significant contributions to probability theory, like cryptography and computer science. During the
stochastic processes and Markov chains. He also second World War, Weil fled to the United States
studied topology, logic, mechanics, number theory,
and later joined the Institute for Advanced Study at the MacArthur award in 2014. This is similar to
Princeton University. the Twin Prime conjecture, which states that there
are infinitely many pairs exactly 2 apart (for
Stanisław Ulam
example 11 and 13) – but no one knows if this is
Stanisław Ulam (1909 – 1984) was a Polish- true.
American mathematician. He played an important
Jean Bourgain
part in the American Manhattan Project that
developed the first nuclear weapons. He also Jean Bourgain (1954 – 2018) was a Belgian
worked on rocket propulsion using nuclear pulses, mathematician who studied topics like Banach
and developed the Monte Carlo method – an spaces, harmonic analysis, ergodic theory and non-
important concept in statistics. linear partial differential equations. He received the
Fields medal in 1994.
Shiing-Shen Chern
Shing-Tung Yau
Shiing-Shen Chern (1911 – 2004) was a Chinese-
American mathematician and poet. He is the father Shing-Tung Yau ( 丘 成 桐 , born 1949) is an
of modern differential geometry. His work on American mathematician, originally from Shantou in
geometry, topology, and knot theory even has China. He studied partial differential equations and
applications in string theory and quantum geometric analysis, and his work has many
mechanics. applications – including in general relativity and
string theory.
Alan Turing
Adi Shamir
Alan Turing (1912 – 1954) was an English
mathematician and is often called the “father of Adi Shamir (born 1952) is an Israeli
computer science”. During the Second World War, mathematician and cryptographer. Together with
Turing played a critical role in breaking the Enigma Ron Rivest and Len Adleman, he invented the RSA
code used by the German military, as part of the algorithm, which uses the difficulty of factoring
“Government Code and Cypher School” at prime numbers to encode secret messages.
Bletchley Park. This helped the Allies win the war,
Yuri Matiyasevich
and may have saved millions of lives. He also
invented the Turing machine, a mathematical Yuri Matiyasevich (Ю́ рий Матиясе́ вич, born
model of a general purpose computer, and the 1947) is a Russian mathematician and computer
Turing test, which can be used to judge the ability scientist. In 1970, he proved that Hilbert’s tenth
of artificial intelligence.Turing was gay, which was problem, one of the challenges posed by David
still a crime during his life, and meant that his Hilbert in 1900, has no solution (building upon the
groundbreaking accomplishments were never fully work of Martin Davis, Hilary Putnam and Julia
recognised. He committed suicide at the age of 41. Robinson). This is now known as Matiyasevich’s
theorem or the MRDP ttheorem The problem asks
Edward Lorenz
for an algorithm to decide whether a given
Edward Lorenz (1917 – 2008) was an American Diophantine equation (a polynomial equations with
mathematician and meteorologist. He pioneered integer coefficients) has any integer-valued
chaos theory, discovered strange attractors, and solutions.
coined the term “butterfly effect”.
Ingrid Daubechies
Yitang Zhang
Ingrid Daubechies (born 1954) is a Belgian
Yitang Zhang ( 张 益 唐 , born 1955) was born in physicist and mathematician. She was the first
China and is now a professor of mathematics at the female president of the International Mathematical
University of California. Zhang discovered that Union (IMU). Daubechies studied different types of
there is a number k less than 70 million, so that wavelets, which are now an essential part of image
there are infinitely many pairs of prime numbers compression formats like JPEG. Born in Adelaide,
that are exactly k apart. This was a groundbreaking Australia, Terence Tao (born 17 July) is sometimes
discovery in number theory, for which he received called the “Mozart of mathematics”. When he was
13, he became the youngest ever winner of the Mirzakhani worked at the intersection of dynamical
International Mathematical Olympiad, and when he systems and geometry. She studied objects like
was 24, he became the youngest tenured professor hyperbolic surfaces and complex manifolds, but
at the University of California, Los Angeles. also contributed to many other areas of
mathematics.
Terence Tao
When solving problems, Mirzakhani would draw
Born in Adelaide, Australia, Terence Tao (born 17
doodles and diagrams on large sheets of paper, to
July) is sometimes called the “Mozart of
see the underlying patterns and beauty. Her
mathematics”. When he was 13, he became the
daughter even described Maryam’s work as
youngest ever winner of the International
“painting”. At the age of 40, Mirzakhani died of
Mathematical Olympiad, and when he was 24, he
breast cancer.
became the youngest tenured professor at the
University of California, Los Angeles. Tao has Artur Avila
received the MacArthur Fellowship, the
Artur Avila (born 1979) is a Brazilian
Breakthrough Prize in mathematics, as well as the
mathematician, and the first Latin-American to
Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics, for
receive the Fields medal. He made numerous
“his contributions to partial differential equations,
discoveries related to chaos theory and dynamical
combinatorics, harmonic analysis and additive
systems.
number theory”.
Maryna Viazovska
Together with Ben Green, Tao proved the Green-
Tao theorem, which states that there are arbitrarily Maryna Viazovska (born 1984) is a Ukrainian
long arithmetic sequences of prime numbers. mathematician and only the second woman in
history to receive the Fields Medal, the highest
Grigori Perelman
award in mathematics. Viazovska solved the
In 2003, the Russian mathematician Grigori sphere-packing problem in 8 and 24 dimensions,
Perelman (Григо́ рий Перельма́ нborn, born which asks about the most efficient way to arrange
1966) proved the Poincaré Conjecture, which, until solid spheres. She is a professor at the École
then, was one of the most famous unsolved Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland.
problems in mathematics.
François Viète
The complex proof was verified by 2006, but
François Viète (1540 – 1603) was a French
Perelman declined two big awards that came with
mathematician, lawyer, and advisor to Kings Henry
it: the $1 million Clay Millennium Prize, and the
III and IV of France. He made significant advances
Fields Medal which is the highest recognition in
in Algebra, and first introduced the use of letters to
mathematics. In fact, he said: “I’m not interested in
represent variables.
money or fame; I don’t want to be on display like an
animal in a zoo.” Viète discovered the connection between the roots
and coefficients of a polynomial, called Viète's
Perelman also made contributions to Riemannian
formula. He also wrote books about geometry and
geometry and geometric topology, and the
trigonometry, including calculating π to 10 decimal
Poincaré Conjecture is still the only one of the
places using a polygon with 393216 sides.
seven Millennium Prize problems to have been
solved. Lorenzo Mascheroni
Maryam Mirzakhani Lorenzo Mascheroni (1750 – 1800) was an Italian
mathematician and son of a wealthy landowner. He
Maryam Mirzakhani (‫انی‬ww‫ریم میرزاخ‬ww‫م‬, 1977 – 2017)
was ordained to priesthood at the age of 17, and
was an Iranian mathematician and professor at
taught rhetoric as well as physics and mathematics.
Stanford University. She was the first woman to
receive the Fields Medal, the highest award in After writing a book about structural engineering, he
mathematics. was appointed professtor of mathematics at the
university of Pavia. Mascheroni proved that all
Euclidean constructions that can be done with
compass and straightedge can also be done with In 1913, Hardy received a letter from Srinivasa
just a compass: this is now known as the Mohr– Ramanujan, an unknown, self-taught clerk from
Mascheroni theorem. India. Hardy immediately recognised his genius,
and arranged for Ramanujan to travel to Cambridge
Even more famously, the Euler-Mascheroni
where he was working. Together, they made
constant γ = 0.57721…, which appears in analysis
important discoveries and authord numerous paper.
and number theory, is named after him. He wrote
about it in 1790 and calculated 32 of its digits Hardy always disliked applied mathematics and
(although with a few mistakes). expressed this in his personal account of
mathematical thinking, the 1940 book A
Gaspard Monge
Mathematician’s Apology.
Gaspard Monge (1746 – 1818) was a French
Ernest Wilkins
mathematician. He is considered the father of
differential geometry, having introduced the Ernest Wilkins (1923 – 2011) was an American
concept of lines of curvature on surfaces in three- engineer, nuclear scientist and mathematician. He
dimensional space (e.g. on a sphere). Monge also attended the University of Chicago at the age of 13,
invented orthographic projection and descriptive becoming its youngest ever student.
geometry, which allows the representation of three-
During the second world war, he contributed to the
dimensional objects using two-dimensional
Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear
drawings.
weapons. As a nuclear scientists, he later helped to
During the French Revolution, Monge served as design nuclear reactors to generate power.
Minister of the Marine. He helped reform the
Wilkins published more than 100 papers, covering
French education system and found the École
subjects like differential geometry, calculus, nuclear
Polytechnique.
engineering and optics – even though, as an
Carl Jacobi African-American, he was often the target of
racism.
Carl Jacobi (1804 – 1851) was a German
mathematician. He worked on analysis, differential Alexander Grothendieck
equations and number theory, and was one of the
The French mathematician Alexander
pioneers in the study of elliptic functions.
Grothendieck (1928 – 2014) was one of the key
James Joseph Sylvester figures in the development of algebraic geometry.
He extended the scope of the field to apply to many
James Joseph Sylvester (1814 – 1897) was an
new problems in mathematics, including,
English mathematician. He contributed to matrix
eventually, Fermat’s last theorem. In 1966, he was
theory, number theory, partition theory, and
awarded the Fields medal.
combinatorics. Together with Arthur Cayley, he
cofounded invariant theory. Sylvester coined many Robert Langlands
of the terms we are familar with today including
Robert Langlands (born 1936) is an American-
“graph”, “discriminant”, and “matrix”.
Canadian mathematician. He studied at Yale
Throughout his career, Sylvester faced University, and later returned there as a professor.
antisemitism. He was denied a degree from Now he occupies Albert Einstein’s old office as an
Cambridge, and he later experienced violence from emeritus professor at Princeton University.
students at the University of Virginia during his
In 2018, Langlands received the Abel Prize, one of
short stay as a professor.
the highest awards in mathematics, for “his
G.H. Hardy visionary program connecting representation theory
to number theory”. The Langlands program, which
G.H. Hardy (1877 – 1947) was a leading English
he first proposed in 1967, consists of a vast web of
pure mathematician. Together with John Littlewood,
conjectures and theorems that link different areas
he made important discoveries in analysis and
of mathematics.
number theory, including the distribution of prime
numbers. Karen Uhlenbeck
Karen Uhlenbeck (born 1942) is an American
mathematician, professor emeritus at the University
of Texas, and distinguished visiting professor at
Princeton University.
She is one of the founders of the field of modern
geometric analysis, and the only woman to have
received the Abel Prize, one of the highest awards
in mathematics.
John Horton Conway
John Horton Conway (1937 – 2020) was a British
mathematician who worked at Cambridge and
Princeton University. He was a fellow of the Royal
Society, and the first recipient of the Pólya Prize.
He explored the underlying mathematics of
everyday objects like knots and games, and he
contributed to group theory, number theory and
many other areas of mathematics. Conway is
known for inventing “Conway’s Game of Life”, a
cellular automaton with fascinating properties.