Leonhard Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1707, the son of a Calvinist pastor who hoped he would enter the church. Trained at Basel by Johann Bernoulli, he was lured by Catherine the Great to the Russian Academy in St Petersburg in 1727, then by Frederick the Great to Berlin in 1741, then back to St Petersburg in 1766. Across that career he produced 866 publications — roughly a quarter of all eighteenth-century scientific output. He invented graph theory by solving the Königsberg-bridges problem, founded modern analysis, gave the world the notation π, e, i, f(x), Σ, the identity e^(iπ) + 1 = 0 (called by some the most beautiful equation in mathematics), and contributed foundational results to calculus, number theory, fluid dynamics, optics, and astronomy. He lost the use of his right eye in his twenties and was blind in both by his sixties — yet his rate of publication actually accelerated. His mathematical universe is the floor on which everyone working today still stands.
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Mathematician · Physicist · Author of 866 Works
Leonhard Euler
1,707 CE – 1,783 CE
The Swiss prodigy whose 866 publications shaped almost every branch of modern mathematics — and who continued producing first-rate work after losing his sight in both eyes.
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