23 lives in this collection worked in probability theory, from 1501 to today. Each has a full course on their life and the mathematics and physics they made.
Often together with: mathematical physics, number theory, potential theory, analysis, calculus, celestial mechanics, differential equations, algebra, combinatorics, dynamical systems. All fields
Renaissance physician and polymath whose Ars Magna published the solutions of the cubic and quartic and the first computations with square roots of negative numbers, and who wrote the first book on the mathematics of chance.
algebra, probability theory, medicine
Toulouse magistrate whose letters founded modern number theory, co-founded analytic geometry and probability, anticipated differential calculus and introduced the principle of least time.
number theory, analytic geometry, calculus
Mathematician, physicist and writer who proved the hexagram theorem, built the Pascaline, established atmospheric pressure, co-founded probability theory with Fermat, and wrote the Provincial Letters and Pensées.
projective geometry, probability theory, combinatorics
Dutch mathematician and physicist who invented the pendulum clock, discovered Titan and the ring of Saturn, founded probability theory in print and proposed the wave theory of light.
mechanics, optics, astronomy
Basel mathematician who helped develop Leibniz's calculus, introduced the Bernoulli numbers and proved the first law of large numbers in Ars Conjectandi.
probability theory, calculus, infinite series
Huguenot exile in London who found the normal approximation to the binomial distribution, the formula (cos x + i sin x)^n = cos nx + i sin nx, and the first practical mathematics of life annuities.
probability theory, analysis, actuarial science
Basel physician and mathematical physicist who wrote Hydrodynamica, founded the kinetic theory of gases, introduced expected utility and built the first epidemic model.
fluid mechanics, kinetic theory, vibrations and acoustics
Presbyterian minister whose posthumous essay of 1763 gave the first solution of the problem of inverse probability, the origin of Bayesian inference.
probability theory, statistics, calculus
Author of the Mécanique céleste, who established the stability of the solar system to first order, founded potential theory and made probability a science of inference.
celestial mechanics, potential theory, probability theory
Leading French mathematical physicist after Laplace, known for Poisson's equation, the Poisson bracket, the Poisson kernel and summation formula, and the Poisson distribution.
mathematical physics, celestial mechanics, potential theory
Mathematician and logician who formulated De Morgan's laws, named mathematical induction, founded the logic of relations and was first president of the London Mathematical Society.
logic, algebra, analysis
Self-taught English mathematician who created the algebra of logic now called Boolean algebra and pioneered operator methods in analysis.
mathematical logic, algebra of logic, probability theory
Founder of the St Petersburg school who proved Bertrand's postulate, created minimax approximation and Chebyshev polynomials, and gave the general law of large numbers.
number theory, approximation theory, probability theory
St Petersburg mathematician who created the theory of Markov chains and contributed to number theory, the moment problem, polynomial inequalities and the limit theorems of probability.
probability theory, number theory, approximation theory
Founder of the modern theory of stability of motion, author of Lyapunov functions and exponents, and prover of the central limit theorem by characteristic functions.
stability theory, differential equations, probability theory
French analyst who created the first theory of measure, founded denumerable probability and the theory of games of strategy, and served as Minister of Marine.
measure theory, complex analysis, divergent series
French mathematician who introduced metric spaces and abstract compactness and made lasting contributions to functional analysis, topology and probability.
functional analysis, general topology, probability theory
Founder of modern probability theory, known for stable laws, Lévy processes, martingale limit theorems and the fine structure of Brownian motion.
probability theory, stochastic processes, functional analysis
American mathematician who constructed Brownian motion rigorously, created generalized harmonic analysis and the general Tauberian theorem, developed optimal filtering and founded cybernetics.
harmonic analysis, probability theory, potential theory
Founder of axiomatic probability theory whose work also shaped turbulence, Hamiltonian dynamics, ergodic theory and algorithmic complexity.
probability theory, real analysis, turbulence
Polish-American mathematician of the Lwów school who introduced measurable cardinals, conjectured the Borsuk–Ulam theorem, invented the Monte Carlo method, co-designed the hydrogen bomb and ran the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou experiment.
set theory, measure theory, topology
Itinerant Hungarian mathematician, author of some 1,500 papers with over 500 co-authors, who founded the probabilistic method and the theory of random graphs.
number theory, combinatorics, graph theory
Founder of the modern theory of chaotic dynamical systems through Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy, dispersing billiards, Markov partitions and SRB measures, and a leader of rigorous statistical physics.
ergodic theory, dynamical systems, mathematical physics