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Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827)
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     Pierre-Simon Laplace, commonly referred to as a mathematician, mathematical physicist, statistician, and astronomer, was born in Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, France in 1749.  His father, Pierre, owned a local cider business and was an official of the local parish.  Laplace had one sister.  
     He spent most of his time as a young child attending the Benedictine school.  At the age of 17 he entered the University of Caen to study theology.  He displayed excellent mathematical skills in his classes and was sent by one of his teachers to meet Jean d’Alembert, a mathematician in Paris.  Impressed by his knowledge and skills in mathematics, d’Alembert  hired Laplace to teach at a military school.  During his time at the school, he submitted numerous mathematical papers to the Académie Royale des Sciences and was elected to be a member of this organization in 1773.

     Laplace contributed many influential ideas that included works in celestial mechanics and the creation of the metric system.  In addition, he investigated ideas in the field of probability.  He developed notation similar to Thomas Bayes, concerning the determination of probabilities by using integrals.  Published in 1812 and later expanded, he wrote Théorie Analytique des Probabilitiés  (Analytic Theory of Probability), which summed up all of the concepts and ideas pertaining to probability at the time.  It included information about the theory of games, geometrical probabilities, the least squares theory, and solutions of differential equations.  Laplace thought that the concepts of probability could be applied in practical applications, such as insurance, decision theory, and demographics.  He used his probability theories to estimate the population of France in 1786.

     Throughout the later years of his life, he concentrated on his study of science.  He died at his country estate in Arcuiel on his 78th birthday after a brief illness. 

Additional Links:
Mathematicians of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - Laplace
MacTutor - Laplace

Picture reproduced from MacTutor History of Mathematics archive with permission.