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A geometer is a
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
whose area of study is
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...
. Some notable geometers and their main fields of work, chronologically listed, are:


1000 BCE to 1 BCE

*
Baudhayana The (Sanskrit: बौधायन) are a group of Vedic Sanskrit texts which cover dharma, daily ritual, mathematics and is one of the oldest Dharma-related texts of Hinduism that have survived into the modern age from the 1st-millennium BCE. Th ...
(fl. c. 800 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
, geometric algebra *
Manava Manava (c. 750 BC – 690 BC) is an author of the Hindu geometric text of ''Sulba Sutras.'' The Manava Sulbasutra is not the oldest (the one by Baudhayana is older), nor is it one of the most important, there being at least three Sulbasut ...
(c. 750 BC–690 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Thales of Miletus Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...
(c. 624 BC – c. 546 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...
(c. 570 BC – c. 495 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
, Pythagorean theorem *
Zeno of Elea Zeno of Elea (; grc, Ζήνων ὁ Ἐλεᾱ́της; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. He is best known ...
(c. 490 BC – c. 430 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Hippocrates of Chios Hippocrates of Chios ( grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Χῖος; c. 470 – c. 410 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician, geometer, and astronomer. He was born on the isle of Chios, where he was originally a merchant. After some misadve ...
(born c. 470 – 410 BC) – first systematically organized '' Stoicheia – Elements'' (geometry textbook) * Mozi (c. 468 BC – c. 391 BC) *
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
(427–347 BC) * Theaetetus (c. 417 BC – 369 BC) *
Autolycus of Pitane Autolycus of Pitane ( el, Αὐτόλυκος ὁ Πιταναῖος; c. 360 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer. The lunar crater Autolycus was named in his honour. Life and work Autolycus was born in Pitane, ...
(360–c. 290 BC) –
astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
, spherical geometry *
Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of ...
(fl. 300 BC) – '' Elements'',
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
(sometimes called the "father of geometry") * Apollonius of Perga (c. 262 BC – c. 190 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
,
conic section In mathematics, a conic section, quadratic curve or conic is a curve obtained as the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a spe ...
s * Archimedes (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
* Eratosthenes (c. 276 BC – c. 195/194 BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
* Katyayana (c. 3rd century BC) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...


1–1300 AD

*
Hero of Alexandria Hero of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἥρων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, ''Heron ho Alexandreus'', also known as Heron of Alexandria ; 60 AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in his native city of Alexandria, Roman Egypt. He ...
(c. AD 10–70) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Pappus of Alexandria Pappus of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Πάππος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; AD) was one of the last great Greek mathematicians of antiquity known for his ''Synagoge'' (Συναγωγή) or ''Collection'' (), and for Pappus's hexagon theorem i ...
(c. AD 290–c. 350) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
,
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
* Hypatia of Alexandria (c. AD 370–c. 415) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
* Brahmagupta (597–668) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
,
cyclic quadrilateral In Euclidean geometry, a cyclic quadrilateral or inscribed quadrilateral is a quadrilateral whose vertices all lie on a single circle. This circle is called the ''circumcircle'' or ''circumscribed circle'', and the vertices are said to be ''c ...
s *
Vergilius of Salzburg Virgil (– 27 November 784), also spelled Vergil, Vergilius, Virgilius, Feirgil or Fearghal, was an Irish churchman and early astronomer. He left Ireland around 745, intending to visit the Holy Land; but, like many of his countrymen, he settle ...
(c.700–784) – Irish bishop of
Aghaboe Aghaboe () is a small village in County Laois, Ireland. It is located on the R434 regional road in the rural hinterland west of the town of Abbeyleix. It contains the ruins of the Abbey of Aghaboe which was founded by St. Canice in the Osso ...
,
Ossory Osraige (Old Irish) or Osraighe (Classical Irish), Osraí (Modern Irish), anglicized as Ossory, was a medieval Irish kingdom comprising what is now County Kilkenny and western County Laois, corresponding to the Diocese of Ossory. The home of ...
and later
Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
,
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
; antipodes, and
astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
* Al-Abbās ibn Said al-Jawharī (c. 800–c. 860) *
Thabit ibn Qurra Thabit ( ar, ) is an Arabic name for males that means "the imperturbable one". It is sometimes spelled Thabet. People with the patronymic * Ibn Thabit, Libyan hip-hop musician * Asim ibn Thabit, companion of Muhammad * Hassan ibn Sabit (died 674 ...
(826–901) – analytic geometry,
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
,
conic section In mathematics, a conic section, quadratic curve or conic is a curve obtained as the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a spe ...
s * Abu'l-Wáfa (940–998) – spherical geometry,
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
* Alhazen (965–c. 1040) *
Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...
(1048–1131) – algebraic geometry,
conic section In mathematics, a conic section, quadratic curve or conic is a curve obtained as the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a spe ...
s *
Ibn Maḍāʾ Abu al-Abbas Ahmad bin Abd al-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Sa'id bin Harith bin Asim al-Lakhmi al-Qurtubi, better known as Ibn Maḍāʾ ( ar, ابن مضاء; 1116–1196) was an Arab Muslim polymath from Córdoba in Islamic Spain. Kees Versteegh ...
(1116–1196)


1301–1800 AD

*
Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...
(1415–1492) *
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
(1452–1519) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
* Jyesthadeva (c. 1500 – c. 1610) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
,
cyclic quadrilateral In Euclidean geometry, a cyclic quadrilateral or inscribed quadrilateral is a quadrilateral whose vertices all lie on a single circle. This circle is called the ''circumcircle'' or ''circumscribed circle'', and the vertices are said to be ''c ...
s * Marin Getaldić (1568–1626) * Jacques-François Le Poivre (1652–1710), projective geometry * Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) – (used geometric ideas in astronomical work) *
Edmund Gunter Edmund Gunter (158110 December 1626), was an English clergyman, mathematician, geometer and astronomer of Welsh descent. He is best remembered for his mathematical contributions which include the invention of the Gunter's chain, the Gunter's qu ...
(1581–1686) *
Girard Desargues Girard Desargues (; 21 February 1591 – September 1661) was a French mathematician and engineer, who is considered one of the founders of projective geometry. Desargues' theorem, the Desargues graph, and the crater Desargues on the Moon are ...
(1591–1661) –
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
; Desargues' theorem *
René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...
(1596–1650) – invented the methodology of analytic geometry, also called ''Cartesian geometry'' after him *
Pierre de Fermat Pierre de Fermat (; between 31 October and 6 December 1607 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he ...
(1607–1665) – analytic geometry * Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) –
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
*
Giordano Vitale Giordano Vitale or Vitale Giordano (October 15, 1633 – November 3, 1711) was an Italian mathematician. He is best known for his theorem on Saccheri quadrilaterals. He may also be referred to as Vitale Giordani, Vitale Giordano da Bitonto, an ...
(1633–1711) * Philippe de La Hire (1640–1718) –
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
*
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
(1642–1727) – 3rd-degree
algebraic curve In mathematics, an affine algebraic plane curve is the zero set of a polynomial in two variables. A projective algebraic plane curve is the zero set in a projective plane of a homogeneous polynomial in three variables. An affine algebraic plane ...
*
Giovanni Ceva Giovanni Ceva (September 1, 1647 – May 13, 1734) was an Italian mathematician widely known for proving Ceva's theorem in elementary geometry. His brother, Tommaso Ceva was also a well-known poet and mathematician. Life Ceva received his educa ...
(1647–1734) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
* Johann Jacob Heber (1666–1727) – surveyor and geometer * Giovanni Gerolamo Saccheri (1667–1733) –
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
*
Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...
(1707–1783) *
Tobias Mayer Tobias Mayer (17 February 172320 February 1762) was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon. He was born at Marbach, in Württemberg, and brought up at Esslingen in poor circumstances. A self-taught mathematician, he earned a l ...
(1723–1762) *
Johann Heinrich Lambert Johann Heinrich Lambert (, ''Jean-Henri Lambert'' in French; 26 or 28 August 1728 – 25 September 1777) was a polymath from the Republic of Mulhouse, generally referred to as either Swiss or French, who made important contributions to the subject ...
(1728–1777) –
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
*
Gaspard Monge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. During ...
(1746–1818) – descriptive geometry *
John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...
(1748–1819) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Education and early ...
(1753–1823) –
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
*
Joseph Diaz Gergonne Joseph Diez Gergonne (19 June 1771 at Nancy, France – 4 May 1859 at Montpellier, France) was a French mathematician and logician. Life In 1791, Gergonne enlisted in the French army as a captain. That army was undergoing rapid expansion becau ...
(1771–1859) –
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
;
Gergonne point In geometry, the incircle or inscribed circle of a triangle is the largest circle that can be contained in the triangle; it touches (is tangent to) the three sides. The center of the incircle is a triangle center called the triangle's incenter. ...
*
Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...
(1777–1855) –
Theorema Egregium Gauss's ''Theorema Egregium'' (Latin for "Remarkable Theorem") is a major result of differential geometry, proved by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1827, that concerns the curvature of surfaces. The theorem says that Gaussian curvature can be determi ...
*
Louis Poinsot Louis Poinsot (3 January 1777 – 5 December 1859) was a French mathematician and physicist. Poinsot was the inventor of geometrical mechanics, showing how a system of forces acting on a rigid body could be resolved into a single force and a c ...
(1777–1859) *
Siméon Denis Poisson Baron Siméon Denis Poisson FRS FRSE (; 21 June 1781 – 25 April 1840) was a French mathematician and physicist who worked on statistics, complex analysis, partial differential equations, the calculus of variations, analytical mechanics, electri ...
(1781–1840) *
Jean-Victor Poncelet Jean-Victor Poncelet (; 1 July 1788 – 22 December 1867) was a French engineer and mathematician who served most notably as the Commanding General of the École Polytechnique. He is considered a reviver of projective geometry, and his work ''Tr ...
(1788–1867) –
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
* Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789 – 1857) *
August Ferdinand Möbius August Ferdinand Möbius (, ; ; 17 November 1790 – 26 September 1868) was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer. Early life and education Möbius was born in Schulpforta, Electorate of Saxony, and was descended on hi ...
(1790–1868) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Лобаче́вский, p=nʲikɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ləbɐˈtɕɛfskʲɪj, a=Ru-Nikolai_Ivanovich_Lobachevsky.ogg; – ) was a Russian mathematician and geometer, kn ...
(1792–1856) –
hyperbolic geometry In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or Bolyai–Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ''P ...
, a
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
* Germinal Dandelin (1794–1847) – Dandelin spheres in conic sections *
Jakob Steiner Jakob Steiner (18 March 1796 – 1 April 1863) was a Swiss mathematician who worked primarily in geometry. Life Steiner was born in the village of Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern. At 18, he became a pupil of Heinrich Pestalozzi and afterwards st ...
(1796–1863) – champion of
synthetic geometry Synthetic geometry (sometimes referred to as axiomatic geometry or even pure geometry) is the study of geometry without the use of coordinates or formulae. It relies on the axiomatic method and the tools directly related to them, that is, compass ...
methodology,
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
,
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...


1801–1900 AD

* Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach (1800–1834) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Julius Plücker Julius Plücker (16 June 1801 – 22 May 1868) was a German mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions to the field of analytical geometry and was a pioneer in the investigations of cathode rays that led eventually to the dis ...
(1801–1868) * János Bolyai (1802–1860) –
hyperbolic geometry In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or Bolyai–Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ''P ...
, a
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
* Christian Heinrich von Nagel (1803–1882) –
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
*
Johann Benedict Listing Johann Benedict Listing (25 July 1808 – 24 December 1882) was a German mathematician. J. B. Listing was born in Frankfurt and died in Göttingen. He first introduced the term "topology" to replace the older term "geometria situs" (also called ...
(1808–1882) –
topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...
*
Hermann Günther Grassmann Hermann Günther Grassmann (german: link=no, Graßmann, ; 15 April 1809 – 26 September 1877) was a German polymath known in his day as a linguistics, linguist and now also as a mathematician. He was also a physicist, general scholar, and publi ...
(1809–1877) –
exterior algebra In mathematics, the exterior algebra, or Grassmann algebra, named after Hermann Grassmann, is an algebra that uses the exterior product or wedge product as its multiplication. In mathematics, the exterior product or wedge product of vectors is a ...
*
Ludwig Otto Hesse Ludwig Otto Hesse (22 April 1811 – 4 August 1874) was a German mathematician. Hesse was born in Königsberg, Prussia, and died in Munich, Bavaria. He worked mainly on algebraic invariants, and geometry. The Hessian matrix, the Hesse norm ...
(1811–1874) –
algebraic invariant Invariant theory is a branch of abstract algebra dealing with actions of groups on algebraic varieties, such as vector spaces, from the point of view of their effect on functions. Classically, the theory dealt with the question of explicit descrip ...
s and
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...
* Ludwig Schlafli (1814–1895) –
Regular 4-polytope In mathematics, a regular 4-polytope is a regular four-dimensional polytope. They are the four-dimensional analogues of the regular polyhedra in three dimensions and the regular polygons in two dimensions. There are six convex and ten star reg ...
*
Pierre Ossian Bonnet Pierre Ossian Bonnet (; 22 December 1819, Montpellier – 22 June 1892, Paris) was a French mathematician. He made some important contributions to the differential geometry of surfaces, including the Gauss–Bonnet theorem. Biography Early ye ...
(1819–1892) – differential geometry * Arthur Cayley (1821–1895) *
Joseph Bertrand Joseph Louis François Bertrand (; 11 March 1822 – 5 April 1900) was a French mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory, differential geometry, probability theory, economics and thermodynamics. Biography Joseph Bertrand was ...
(1822–1900) * Delfino Codazzi (1824–1873) – differential geometry * Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) –
elliptic geometry Elliptic geometry is an example of a geometry in which Euclid's parallel postulate does not hold. Instead, as in spherical geometry, there are no parallel lines since any two lines must intersect. However, unlike in spherical geometry, two lines ...
(a
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
) and
Riemannian geometry Riemannian geometry is the branch of differential geometry that studies Riemannian manifolds, smooth manifolds with a ''Riemannian metric'', i.e. with an inner product on the tangent space at each point that varies smoothly from point to point ...
* Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (1831–1916) *
Ludwig Burmester Ludwig Ernst Hans Burmester (5 May 1840 – 20 April 1927) was a German kinematician and geometer. His doctoral thesis (from German: ''About the elements of a theory of isophotes'') concerned lines on a surface defined by light direction. Aft ...
(1840–1927) – theory of linkages *
Edmund Hess Edmund Hess (17 February 1843 – 24 December 1903) was a German mathematician who discovered several regular polytopes. See also * Schläfli–Hess polychoron * Hess polytope References * ''Regular Polytopes In mathematics, a re ...
(1843–1903) * Albert Victor Bäcklund (1845–1922) *
Max Noether Max Noether (24 September 1844 – 13 December 1921) was a German mathematician who worked on algebraic geometry and the theory of algebraic functions. He has been called "one of the finest mathematicians of the nineteenth century". He was the f ...
(1844–1921) – algebraic geometry *
Henri Brocard Pierre René Jean Baptiste Henri Brocard (12 May 1845 – 16 January 1922) was a French meteorologist and mathematician, in particular a geometer. His best-known achievement is the invention and discovery of the properties of the Brocard point ...
(1845–1922) – Brocard points * William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) – geometric algebra * Pieter Hendrik Schoute (1846–1923) *
Felix Klein Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and grou ...
(1849–1925) * Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (1850–1891) *
Evgraf Fedorov Evgraf Stepanovich Fedorov (russian: Евгра́ф Степа́нович Фёдоров, – 21 May 1919) was a Russian mathematician, crystallographer and mineralogist. Fedorov was born in the Russian city of Orenburg. His father was a top ...
(1853–1919) * Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) * Luigi Bianchi (1856–1928) – differential geometry * Alicia Boole Stott (1860–1940) * Hermann Minkowski (1864–1909) –
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
* Henry Frederick Baker (1866–1956) – algebraic geometry *
Élie Cartan Élie Joseph Cartan (; 9 April 1869 – 6 May 1951) was an influential French mathematician who did fundamental work in the theory of Lie groups, differential systems (coordinate-free geometric formulation of PDEs), and differential geometr ...
(1869–1951) *
Dmitri Egorov Dmitri Fyodorovich Egorov (russian: Дми́трий Фёдорович Его́ров; December 22, 1869 – September 10, 1931) was a Russian and Soviet mathematician known for contributions to the areas of differential geometry and mathematic ...
(1869–1931) – differential geometry *
Veniamin Kagan Veniamin Fyodorovich Kagan (russian: Вениами́н Фёдорович Ка́ган; 10 March 1869 – 8 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet mathematician and expert in geometry. He is the maternal grandfather of mathematicians Yakov Sinai and ...
(1869–1953) *
Raoul Bricard Raoul Bricard (23 March 1870 – 26 November 1943) was a French engineer and a mathematician. He is best known for his work in geometry, especially descriptive geometry and scissors congruence, and kinematics, especially mechanical linkages. ...
(1870–1944) – descriptive geometry *
Ernst Steinitz Ernst Steinitz (13 June 1871 – 29 September 1928) was a German mathematician. Biography Steinitz was born in Laurahütte (Siemianowice Śląskie), Silesia, Germany (now in Poland), the son of Sigismund Steinitz, a Jewish coal merchant, and ...
(1871–1928) – Steinitz's theorem * Marcel Grossmann (1878–1936) *
Oswald Veblen Oswald Veblen (June 24, 1880 – August 10, 1960) was an American mathematician, geometer and topologist, whose work found application in atomic physics and the theory of relativity. He proved the Jordan curve theorem in 1905; while this was lon ...
(1880–1960) –
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
, differential geometry *
Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy NoetherEmmy is the '' Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noeth ...
(1882–1935) –
algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify ...
* Harry Clinton Gossard (1884–1954) *
Arthur Rosenthal Arthur Rosenthal (24 February 1887, Fürth, Germany – 15 September 1959, Lafayette, Indiana) was a German mathematician. Career Rosenthal's mathematical studies started in 1905 in Munich, under Ferdinand Lindemann and Arnold Sommerfeld at the ...
(1887–1959) * Helmut Hasse (1898–1979) – algebraic geometry


1901–present

* Denis Auroux (1977–) * William Vallance Douglas Hodge (1903–1975) *
Patrick du Val Patrick du Val (March 26, 1903 – January 22, 1987) was a British mathematician, known for his work on algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and general relativity. The concept of Du Val singularity of an algebraic surface is named aft ...
(1903–1987) *
Beniamino Segre Beniamino Segre (16 February 1903 – 2 October 1977) was an Italian mathematician who is remembered today as a major contributor to algebraic geometry and one of the founders of finite geometry. Life and career He was born and studied in Turin ...
(1903–1977) –
combinatorial geometry Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic geo ...
* J. C. P. Miller (1906–1981) * André Weil (1906–1998) – Algebraic geometry * H. S. M. Coxeter (1907–2003) – theory of
polytope In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides ('' faces''). Polytopes are the generalization of three-dimensional polyhedra to any number of dimensions. Polytopes may exist in any general number of dimensions as an ...
s,
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
,
projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...
* J. A. Todd (1908–1994) *
Daniel Pedoe Dan Pedoe (29 October 1910, London – 27 October 1998, St Paul, Minnesota, USA) was an English-born mathematician and geometer with a career spanning more than sixty years. In the course of his life he wrote approximately fifty research and expos ...
(1910–1998) *
Shiing-Shen Chern Shiing-Shen Chern (; , ; October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geome ...
(1911–2004) – differential geometry *
Ernst Witt Ernst Witt (26 June 1911 – 3 July 1991) was a German mathematician, one of the leading algebraists of his time. Biography Witt was born on the island of Alsen, then a part of the German Empire. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved the ...
(1911–1991) *
Rafael Artzy Rafael Artzy (23 July 1912 – 22 August 2006) was an Israeli mathematician specializing in geometry. Education and emigration Artzy was born July 23, 1912, in Königsberg, Germany. His father was Edward I. Deutschlander and his mother Ida Freud ...
(1912–2006) *
Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov (russian: Алекса́ндр Дани́лович Алекса́ндров, alternative transliterations: ''Alexandr'' or ''Alexander'' (first name), and ''Alexandrov'' (last name)) (4 August 1912 – 27 July 19 ...
(1912–1999) *
László Fejes Tóth László Fejes Tóth ( hu, Fejes Tóth László, 12 March 1915 – 17 March 2005) was a Hungarian mathematician who specialized in geometry. He proved that a lattice pattern is the most efficient way to pack centrally symmetric convex sets on th ...
(1915–2005) * Edwin Evariste Moise (1918–1998) *
Aleksei Pogorelov Aleksei Vasil'evich Pogorelov (russian: Алексе́й Васи́льевич Погоре́лов, ua, Олексі́й Васи́льович Погорє́лов; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2002), was a Soviet and Ukrainian ...
(1919–2002) – differential geometry *
Magnus Wenninger Father Magnus J. Wenninger OSB (October 31, 1919Banchoff (2002)– February 17, 2017) was an American mathematician who worked on constructing polyhedron models, and wrote the first book on their construction. Early life and education Born to Ge ...
(1919–2017) –
polyhedron model A polyhedron model is a physical construction of a polyhedron, constructed from cardboard, plastic board, wood board or other panel material, or, less commonly, solid material. Since there are 75 uniform polyhedra, including the five regular con ...
s *
Jean-Louis Koszul Jean-Louis Koszul (; January 3, 1921 – January 12, 2018) was a French mathematician, best known for studying geometry and discovering the Koszul complex. He was a second generation member of Bourbaki. Biography Koszul was educated at the in ...
(1921–2018) *
Isaak Yaglom Isaak Moiseevich Yaglom (russian: Исаа́к Моисе́евич Ягло́м; 6 March 1921 – 17 April 1988) was a Soviet mathematician and author of popular mathematics books, some with his twin Akiva Yaglom. Yaglom received a Ph.D. from M ...
(1921–1988) * Benoit Mandelbrot (1924–2010) –
fractal geometry In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illu ...
*
Katsumi Nomizu was a Japanese-American mathematician known for his work in differential geometry. Life and career Nomizu was born in Osaka, Japan on the first day of December, 1924. He studied mathematics at Osaka University, graduating in 1947 with a Maste ...
(1924–2008) –
affine differential geometry Affine differential geometry is a type of differential geometry which studies invariants of volume-preserving affine transformations. The name ''affine differential geometry'' follows from Klein's Erlangen program. The basic difference between aff ...
*
Michael S. Longuet-Higgins Michael Selwyn Longuet-Higgins FRS (8 December 1925 – 26 February 2016) was a mathematician and oceanographer at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), Cambridge University, England and Institute for Nonline ...
(1925–2016) * John Leech (1926–1992) * Alexander Grothendieck (1928–2014) – algebraic geometry *
Branko Grünbaum Branko Grünbaum ( he, ברנקו גרונבאום; 2 October 1929 – 14 September 2018) was a Croatian-born mathematician of Jewish descentdiscrete geometry Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic ge ...
*
Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded th ...
(1929–2019) *
Lev Semenovich Pontryagin Lev Semenovich Pontryagin (russian: Лев Семёнович Понтрягин, also written Pontriagin or Pontrjagin) (3 September 1908 – 3 May 1988) was a Soviet Union, Soviet mathematician. He was born in Moscow and lost his eyesight ...
(1908–1988) * Geoffrey Colin Shephard (1927–2016) * Norman W. Johnson (1930–2017) *
John Milnor John Willard Milnor (born February 20, 1931) is an American mathematician known for his work in differential topology, algebraic K-theory and low-dimensional holomorphic dynamical systems. Milnor is a distinguished professor at Stony Brook Univ ...
(1931–) * Roger Penrose (1931–) *
Yuri Manin Yuri Ivanovich Manin (russian: Ю́рий Ива́нович Ма́нин; born 16 February 1937) is a Russian mathematician, known for work in algebraic geometry and diophantine geometry, and many expository works ranging from mathematical log ...
(1937–) – algebraic geometry and
diophantine geometry In mathematics, Diophantine geometry is the study of Diophantine equations by means of powerful methods in algebraic geometry. By the 20th century it became clear for some mathematicians that methods of algebraic geometry are ideal tools to study ...
*
Vladimir Arnold Vladimir Igorevich Arnold (alternative spelling Arnol'd, russian: link=no, Влади́мир И́горевич Арно́льд, 12 June 1937 – 3 June 2010) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician. While he is best known for the Kolmogorov– ...
(1937–2010) – algebraic geometry *
Ernest Vinberg Ernest Borisovich Vinberg (russian: Эрне́ст Бори́сович Ви́нберг; 26 July 1937 – 12 May 2020) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, who worked on Lie groups and algebraic groups, discrete subgroups of Lie groups, invar ...
(1937–2020) * J. H. Conway (1937–2020) –
sphere packing In geometry, a sphere packing is an arrangement of non-overlapping spheres within a containing space. The spheres considered are usually all of identical size, and the space is usually three-dimensional Euclidean space. However, sphere packing p ...
, recreational geometry *
Robin Hartshorne __NOTOC__ Robin Cope Hartshorne ( ; born March 15, 1938) is an American mathematician who is known for his work in algebraic geometry. Career Hartshorne was a Putnam Fellow in Fall 1958 while he was an undergraduate at Harvard University (under ...
(1938–) – geometry, algebraic geometry * Phillip Griffiths (1938–) – algebraic geometry, differential geometry *
Enrico Bombieri Enrico Bombieri (born 26 November 1940, Milan) is an Italian mathematician, known for his work in analytic number theory, Diophantine geometry, complex analysis, and group theory. Bombieri is currently Professor Emeritus in the School of Mathem ...
(1940–) – algebraic geometry * Robert Williams (1942–) *
Peter McMullen Peter McMullen (born 11 May 1942) is a British mathematician, a professor emeritus of mathematics at University College London. Education and career McMullen earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Trinity College, Cambridge, and studied at ...
(1942–) * Richard S. Hamilton (1943–) – differential geometry,
Ricci flow In the mathematical fields of differential geometry and geometric analysis, the Ricci flow ( , ), sometimes also referred to as Hamilton's Ricci flow, is a certain partial differential equation for a Riemannian metric. It is often said to be ana ...
,
Poincaré conjecture In the mathematical field of geometric topology, the Poincaré conjecture (, , ) is a theorem about the characterization of the 3-sphere, which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dimensional space. Originally conjectured ...
* Mikhail Gromov (1943–) *
Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...
(1946–) *
William Thurston William Paul Thurston (October 30, 1946August 21, 2012) was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology and was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds. Thursto ...
(1946–2012) *
Shing-Tung Yau Shing-Tung Yau (; ; born April 4, 1949) is a Chinese-American mathematician and the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. In April 2022, Yau announced retirement from Harvard to become Chair Professor of mathem ...
(1949–) *
Michael Freedman Michael Hartley Freedman (born April 21, 1951) is an American mathematician, at Microsoft Station Q, a research group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1986, he was awarded a Fields Medal for his work on the 4-dimensional gene ...
(1951–) * Egon Schulte (1955–) –
polytope In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides ('' faces''). Polytopes are the generalization of three-dimensional polyhedra to any number of dimensions. Polytopes may exist in any general number of dimensions as an ...
s *
George W. Hart George William Hart (born 1955) is an American sculptor and geometer. Before retiring, he was an associate professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in New York City and then an interdepartmental research professor at Stony B ...
(1955–) – sculptor * Károly Bezdek (1955–) –
discrete geometry Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic ge ...
,
sphere packing In geometry, a sphere packing is an arrangement of non-overlapping spheres within a containing space. The spheres considered are usually all of identical size, and the space is usually three-dimensional Euclidean space. However, sphere packing p ...
,
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the '' Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms ...
,
non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...
*
Simon Donaldson Sir Simon Kirwan Donaldson (born 20 August 1957) is an English mathematician known for his work on the topology of smooth (differentiable) four-dimensional manifolds, Donaldson–Thomas theory, and his contributions to Kähler geometry. H ...
(1957–) * Kenji Fukaya (1959–) – symplectic geometry *
Oh Yong-Geun Oh Yong-Geun is a mathematician and distinguished professor at the Pohang University of Science and Technology and founding director of the IBS Center for Geometry and Physics located on that campus. His fields of study have been on symplectic top ...
(1961–) * Toshiyuki Kobayashi (1962–) * Hiraku Nakajima (1962–) – representation theory and geometry * Hwang Jun-Muk (1963–) – algebraic geometry, differential geometry *
Grigori Perelman Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman ( rus, links=no, Григорий Яковлевич Перельман, p=ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲɪj ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪtɕ pʲɪrʲɪlʲˈman, a=Ru-Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman.oga; born 13 June 1966) is a Russian mathemati ...
(1966–) –
Poincaré conjecture In the mathematical field of geometric topology, the Poincaré conjecture (, , ) is a theorem about the characterization of the 3-sphere, which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dimensional space. Originally conjectured ...
* Maryam Mirzakhani (1977–2017)


Geometers in art


References

{{Reflist
Geometers A geometer is a mathematician whose area of study is geometry. Some notable geometers and their main fields of work, chronologically listed, are: 1000 BCE to 1 BCE * Baudhayana (fl. c. 800 BC) – Euclidean geometry, geometric algebra ...
*