Joseph-Louis Lagrange

25 January 1736 – 10 April 1813

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) was an Italian-born French mathematician and astronomer who made major contributions to analysis, number theory, and celestial mechanics. His treatise Mecanique analytique reformulated classical mechanics in purely analytical terms, and he succeeded Euler as director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy of Sciences before spending his final decades in Paris, where he was honored by both the Revolution and Napoleon.

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Life events

Born in Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia
25 January 1736

Giuseppe Luigi Lagrangia, later known as Joseph-Louis Lagrange, was born in Turin to a family of French and Italian descent.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Appointed professor of mathematics at the Royal Artillery School in Turin
1755

Still a teenager, Lagrange began teaching mathematics at Turin's artillery school.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Co-founded the scientific society that became the Turin Academy of Sciences
1757

Lagrange helped establish a private scientific society in Turin whose journal, Miscellanea Taurinensia, published much of his early work.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Succeeded Euler as director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy in Berlin
November 1766

At the invitation of Frederick the Great, Lagrange moved to Berlin, where he spent over twenty highly productive years.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married his cousin Vittoria Conti
1767

Lagrange married Vittoria Conti in Berlin; she died in 1783 after a long illness.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Moved to Paris to join the French Academy of Sciences
1787

After the death of Frederick the Great, Lagrange accepted an offer from Louis XVI and settled in Paris for the rest of his life.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published Mecanique analytique
1788

Lagrange's masterwork recast Newtonian mechanics as a branch of mathematical analysis, without a single diagram, and introduced what are now called Lagrangian methods.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married Renee-Francoise-Adelaide Le Monnier
1792

Lagrange married the daughter of the astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier in Paris.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Became founding professor of analysis at the Ecole Polytechnique
1794

Lagrange taught at the newly founded Ecole Polytechnique and served on the commission that created the metric system.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Paris
10 April 1813

Lagrange died in Paris, having been made a senator and count of the Empire by Napoleon, and was buried in the Pantheon.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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