Joseph-Louis Lagrange
1736–1813, Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia (now Italy), Paris, French Empire
Italian-French mathematician and mechanician who helped establish modern analytical mechanics through the calculus of variations and Lagrange's equations.
Born in Turin to a family of French ancestry, Lagrange became a professor there while still young and distinguished himself in the calculus of variations. In 1766 he moved to Berlin at the invitation of Frederick II, leading the mathematical work of the Prussian Academy.
His Mécanique analytique (1788) recast mechanics in a unified analytical framework, notably through the equations of motion that bear his name. After the French Revolution he worked in Paris, contributed to the metric system, and taught at the École Polytechnique.
Workplaces: Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin, French Academy of Sciences, Paris
Italy, France