Greatest Mathematicians of All Time: List of Top 11 Mathematicians

Greatest Mathematicians of All Time: Let’s just admit that Mathematics is one of the most fun and popular subjects. People love Mathematics for various reasons. However, there are many who may feel slightly afraid thinking that it is way too confusing. Well, it is not. For people who have a hood teacher and guidance, Maths can become like a cakewalk. All you need to do is have some idea about the concepts of Mathematics. Following the life of the greatest mathematicians of all time can help you learn a lot.

Maths has had a contribution to the development of society as well. Most of the scientific discoveries were possible because of Maths. It allowed us to know the secrets of DNA, create and transmit electricity and also brought computers into existence. We owe the success and all these contributions to the greatest mathematician of all time. Read the article further to know some of the greatest Mathematicians.

List of the 11 Greatest Mathematicians of all Time

The greatest mathematicians of all time have contributed significantly to the growth of the world. Most of them had also received awards and acknowledgements for their contribution to the field of Maths. Below is a list of all the greatest mathematicians of all time:

1. Carl Friedrich Gauss

Born: April 30, 1777, Braunschweig, Germany
Died: February 23, 1855, Göttingen, Germany
Awards: Copley Medal
Education: University of Helmstedt, University of Göttingen, Braunschweig University of Technology

Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, astronomy, and matrix theory, and optics.

2. Leonhard Euler

Born: April 15, 1707, Basel, Switzerland
Died: September 18, 1783, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Education: University of Basel (1720–1723)
Influenced: Carl Friedrich Gauss, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, and more
Spouse: Salome Abigail Gsell (m. 1776–1783), Katharina Gsell (m. 1734–1773)

Leonhard Euler was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician and engineer who made important and influential discoveries in many branches of mathematics like infinitesimal calculus and graph theory while also making pioneering contributions to several branches such as topology and analytic number theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function.

3. Isaac Newton

Born: January 4, 1643, Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, United Kingdom
Died: March 31, 1727, Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Full name: Sir Isaac Newton
Education: Trinity College, Cambridge (1667–1668), The King’s School, Grantham (1955-1959)

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English mathematician, astronomer, and physicist who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution.

4. Euclid

Born: Alexandria, Egypt
Nationality: Greek
Influenced: Stilpo, Thrasymachus of Corinth, Clinomachus, Eubulides, Ichthyas
Teacher: Archimedes
Field: Mathematics

Euclid of Megara was a Greek Socratic philosopher who founded the Megarian school of philosophy. He was a pupil of Socrates in the late 5th century BCE and was present at his death. He held the supreme good to be one, eternal and unchangeable and denied the existence of anything contrary to the good.

5. Srinivasa Ramanujan

Born: December 22, 1887, Erode
Died: April 26, 1920, Kumbakonam
Spouse: Janakiammal (m. 1909–1920)
Education: Trinity College, Cambridge (1919–1920), University of Cambridge (1914-1919)
Parents: Komalatammal, K. Srinivasa Iyengar

Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician who made significant contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory and continued fractions. At age 31 Ramanujan was one of the youngest Fellows in the history of the Royal Society. He was elected “for his investigation in Elliptic functions and the Theory of Numbers.” On 13 October 1918, he was the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is considered to be one of the best Indian mathematicians.

6. Pierre de Fermat

Born: August 17, 1601, Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France
Died: January 12, 1665, Castres, France
Education: University of Orléans (1623–1626)
Spouse: Louise Long Fermat (m. ?–1665)
Books: Writings on Geometrical Loci
Parents: Dominique Fermat, Françoise Cazeneuve Fermat

Pierre de Fermat, A French mathematician who is often called the founder of the modern theory of numbers. Fermat developed a system of analytic geometry which both preceded and surpassed that of Descartes; he developed methods of differential and integral calculus which Newton acknowledged as an inspiration. He was also the first European to find the integration formula for the general polynomial, he used his calculus to find centres of gravity etc.

7. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Born: July 1, 1646, Leipzig, Germany
Died: November 14, 1716, Hanover, Germany
Influenced: Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, more
Education: Leipzig University, University of Altdorf, University of Jena
Influenced by: René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Blaise Pascal and many more.

Leibniz pioneered the common discourse of mathematics, including its continuous, discrete, and symbolic aspects. His ideas on symbolic logic weren’t pursued and it was left to Boole to reinvent this almost two centuries later.

8. Albert Einstein

Born: March 14, 1879, Ulm, Germany
Died: April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Influenced: Satyendra Nath Bose, Leo Szilard, Wolfgang Pauli, and more
Influenced by: Isaac Newton, Mahatma Gandhi and many more.

Albert Einstein was unquestionably one of the two greatest physicists in all of history. The atomic theory achieved general acceptance only after Einstein’s 1905 paper which showed that atoms’ discreteness explained Brownian motion. Another 1905 paper introduced the famous equation E = mc2. Einstein published at least 300 books or papers on physics altogether.

9. Pythagoras

Areas of interest: Politics, Mathematics, Metaphysics, Ethics, Music
Influenced: Philolaus, Empedocles, Plato, Alcmaeon of Croton, Euclid, Johannes Kepler, Parmenides, Hippasus
Philosophical era: Ancient philosophy
Schools of thought: Pythagoreanism
Influenced by: Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Pherecydes of Syros, Themistocles

Pythagoras discovered that harmonious intervals in music are based on simple rational numbers. This led to a fascination with integers and mystic numerology. The Pythagorean Theorem was known long before Pythagoras, but he is often credited with the first proof. Apastambha proved it in India at about the same time; some conjecture that Pythagoras journeyed to India and learned of the proof there.

10. René Descartes

Born: March 31, 1596, Descartes, Indre-et-Loire, France
Died: February 11, 1650, Stockholm, Sweden
Influenced: Noam Chomsky, Baruch Spinoza, Slavoj Žižek, more
Influenced by: Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Archimedes and many more.

René Descartes is considered the inventor of both analytic geometry and symbolic algebraic notation. His use of equations to partially solve the geometric problem of Pappus revolutionized mathematics.

11. Aryabhata

Born: 476 AD, Assaka
Died: 550 AD, India
Nationality: Indian
Books: Aryabhatiya
Main interests: Mathematics, Astronomy
Influenced: Lalla, Bhāskara I, Brahmagupta, Varāhamihira

Indian mathematicians excelled for thousands of years, and eventually even developed advanced techniques like the Taylor series before Europeans did, but they are denied credit because of Western ascendancy. Among the Hindu mathematicians, Aryabhata known as Arjehir by Arabs, maybe the most famous. Aryabhata is famous for the identity Σ (k3) = (Σ k)2. His most famous accomplishment in mathematics was the Aryabhata Algorithm for solving Diophantine equations. He made several important discoveries in astronomy.

Frequently Asked Questions on Greatest Mathematicians of All Time

Below are some of the frequently asked questions about the greatest mathematicians of all time:

Q.1: What is Isaac Newton famous for?
Ans: Isaac Newton is famous for his contributions to the field of Mathematics and Physics. However, mostly he is famous for his three laws of motion.

Q.2: Who invented Calculus?
Ans: Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz invented the theories of calculus in the late 17th century.

Q.3: Is 0 a number?
Ans: Yes, 0 is an integer.

Q.4: Who invented zero?
Ans: Indian mathematician Aryabhatta discovered or invented zero.

Q.5: Is infinity a real number?
Ans: Invented by mathematician John Wallis, infinity is a useful and real concept. However, it is not a member of the mathematically defined real numbers which is why it is often not represented in the number line.

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