Pierre-Simon Laplace

Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827). Posthumous portrait by Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin, 1838.
Born	(1749-03-23)March 23, 1749 Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, Kingdom of France
Died	5 March 1827(1827-03-05) (aged 77) Paris, Bourbon France
Nationality	French
Fields	Astronomer and Mathematician
Institutions	École Militaire (1769–1776)
Alma mater	University of Caen
Academic advisors	Jean d'Alembert Christophe Gadbled Pierre Le Canu
Doctoral students	Siméon Denis Poisson
Known for	Work in celestial mechanics Predicting the existence of black holes Bayesian inference Bayesian probability Laplace's equation Laplacian Laplace transform Inverse Laplace transform Laplace distribution Laplace's demon Laplace expansion Young–Laplace equation Laplace number Laplace limit Laplace invariant Laplace principle Laplace's principle of insufficient reason Laplace's method Laplace expansion Laplace force Laplace formula Laplace filter Laplace functional Laplacian matrix Laplace motion Laplace plane Laplace pressure Laplace resonance Laplace's spherical harmonics Laplace smoothing Laplace expansion Laplace expansion (potential) Laplace-Bayes estimator Laplace–Stieltjes transform Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector Nebular hypothesis
Signature

Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (/ləˈplɑːs/; French: [pjɛʁ simɔ̃ laplas]; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was an influential French scholar whose work was important to the development of mathematics, statistics, physics and astronomy. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799–1825). This work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems. In statistics, the Bayesian interpretation of probability was developed mainly by Laplace.

Laplace formulated Laplace's equation, and pioneered the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in mathematics, is also named after him. He restated and developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the Solar System and was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse.