Jean le Rond d'Alembert

16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783

Jean le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist, a central figure of the Enlightenment. He formulated d'Alembert's principle in mechanics and made fundamental contributions to the study of differential equations and the wave equation. With Denis Diderot he co-edited the Encyclopédie, for which he wrote the celebrated Preliminary Discourse.

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Life events

Born in Paris and abandoned at the church of Saint-Jean-le-Rond
16 November 1717

The illegitimate son of the writer Claudine Guérin de Tencin, d'Alembert was left as a newborn on the steps of the Saint-Jean-le-Rond church, from which he took his name, and was raised by a glazier's wife.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Studied at the Collège des Quatre-Nations
c. 1730 – 1735

D'Alembert entered the Jansenist Collège des Quatre-Nations in Paris, where he studied philosophy, law, and the arts, graduating in 1735.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Elected to the French Academy of Sciences
1741

On the strength of his early mathematical papers, d'Alembert was admitted to the Académie des sciences in Paris.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Published the Traité de dynamique
1743

D'Alembert published his treatise on dynamics, introducing what became known as d'Alembert's principle for reducing problems of motion to problems of static equilibrium.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Derived the one-dimensional wave equation for a vibrating string
1747

In a memoir on vibrating strings, d'Alembert obtained and solved the one-dimensional wave equation, a landmark in mathematical physics.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Co-edited the Encyclopédie and wrote its Preliminary Discourse
1751

As co-editor with Denis Diderot, d'Alembert oversaw the mathematical and scientific articles of the Encyclopédie and wrote its influential Discours préliminaire for the first volume of 1751.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Elected to the Académie française
1754

D'Alembert was elected a member of the Académie française, the pre-eminent French literary academy.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Became permanent secretary of the Académie française
1772

D'Alembert was appointed perpetual secretary of the Académie française, a post he held until his death.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Paris
29 October 1783

D'Alembert died of a bladder illness in Paris and, as a known unbeliever, was buried in an unmarked grave.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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