ProofWiki:Mathematicians/Sorted By Nation/Switzerland

For more comprehensive information on the lives and works of mathematicians through the ages, see the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, created by John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson.

"The army of those who have made at least one definite contribution to mathematics as we know it soon becomes a mob as we look back over history; 6,000 or 8,000 names press forward for some word from us to preserve them from oblivion, and once the bolder leaders have been recognised it becomes largely a matter of arbitrary, illogical legislation to judge who of the clamouring multitude shall be permitted to survive and who be condemned to be forgotten."

Switzerland

Jacob Bernoulli

1654 – 1705

Swiss mathematician (also known as James, Jacques or Jakob) best known for his work on probability theory and development of the calculus.

Developed the technique of Separation of Variables, and in 1696 solved what is now known as Bernoulli's (Differential) Equation.

Elder brother of Johann Bernoulli, with whom he famously quarrelled.
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Johann Bernoulli

1667 – 1738

Swiss mathematician (also known as Jean or John) best known for his work on development of the calculus.

Taught Guillaume de l'Hôpital, who then went ahead and published his lecture notes without crediting him.

Pioneered the technique of Integration by Parts.

Younger brother of Jacob Bernoulli, with whom he did not always see eye to eye.
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Nicolaus I Bernoulli

1687 – 1759

Swiss mathematician (also known as Nicolas Bernoulli) who worked on probability theory, geometry and differential equations.

Most of his important work can be found in his correspondence, particularly with Pierre Raymond de Montmort, in which he introduced the St. Petersburg Paradox.

He also corresponded with Leonhard Paul Euler and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.

Nephew of Jacob Bernoulli and Johann Bernoulli.
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Nicolaus II Bernoulli

1695 – 1726

Swiss mathematician who worked mostly on curves, differential equations and probability theory. He also contributed to fluid dynamics.

Studied as a lawyer, and became involved in the priority dispute between Newton and Leibniz, and also the one between Johann Bernoulli and Brook Taylor.

Posed the problem of reciprocal orthogonal trajectories in 1720.

Son of Johann Bernoulli and the elder brother of Daniel Bernoulli and Johann II Bernoulli.
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Daniel Bernoulli

1700 – 1782

Dutch / Swiss mathematician who worked mostly on fluid dynamics, probability theory and statistics.

Considered by many to be the first mathematical physicist.

Son of Johann Bernoulli and the brother of Nicolaus II Bernoulli and Johann II Bernoulli.

Famously suffered from the jealousy and bad temper of his father Johann Bernoulli who, among other unpleasantnesses, tried to steal his Hydrodynamica and pass it off as his own, naming it Hydraulica.
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Leonhard Paul Euler

1707 – 1783

Swiss mathematician and physicist who pioneered much of the foundation of modern mathematics.

• Introduced much of the notation which is used today, including e and the modern notation for trigonometric functions.
• Proved Fermat's Little Theorem.

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Johann II Bernoulli

1710 – 1790

Swiss mathematician (also known as Jean) who worked mostly on the theory of heat and light.

Son of Johann Bernoulli and the younger brother of Nicolaus II Bernoulli and Daniel Bernoulli.

Father of Johann III Bernoulli and Jakob II Bernoulli.
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Johann Heinrich Lambert

1728 – 1777

Swiss mathematician, physicist and astronomer.

The first to introduce hyperbolic functions into trigonometry.

Made conjectures regarding non-Euclidean space.

Credited with the first proof that $\pi$ is irrational.
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Johann III Bernoulli

1744 – 1807

Swiss mathematician (also known as Jean) who worked on probability theory, recurring decimals and the theory of equations.

Son of Johann II Bernoulli and the elder brother of Jakob II Bernoulli.
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Jakob II Bernoulli

1759 – 1789

Swiss mathematician (also known as Jacob) who worked in geometry and mathematical physics.

Son of Johann II Bernoulli and the younger brother of Johann III Bernoulli.
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Jakob Steiner

1796 – 1863

Swiss mathematician who worked extensively (and mainly) in geometry.

He made an important contribution to combinatorics with his Steiner system, a kind of block design.
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Jacques Charles François Sturm

1803 – 1855

Charles Sturm was a mathematical physicist whose work was mainly in the fields of applied mathematics and physics.
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Florian Cajori

1859 – 1930

Swiss-born American mathematician who specialized in (and in fact pioneered) the field of mathematics history.
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Paul Isaac Bernays

1888 – 1977

Swiss mathematician who worked mainly in mathematical logic and axiomatic set theory.
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Gabriel Andrew Dirac

1925 – 1984

Swiss mathematician who mainly worked in graph theory.

Stepson of Paul Dirac and nephew of Eugene Wigner.
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