Augustin-Louis Cauchy

Born in Paris in 1789, Augustin-Louis Cauchy began his life during the tumult of the French Revolution. His father, a high ranking official in the Parisian Police Force before the revolution, escaped to the village of Arcueil where they survived the next few years. Following the death of Robespierre in 1794, Cauchy's father was able to reenter bureaucratic service, being promoted to the ranks of Secretary-General of the Senate upon Napoleon Boneparte's seizure of power five years later. In this position, the Cauchy family became close with the mathematicians Pierre-Simon Laplace and Joseph Louis Lagrange, which would serve to inspire and mentor the young Couchy, who was enrolled at L'Ecole Centrale du Pantheon, Paris' most respectable secondary school at the time. Cauchy later placed into L'Ecoly Polytechnique, where he studies military engineering, but the rigorous order proved to be problematic, though he completed his studies in 1807. At the age of 18, Cauchy entered L'Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees where he studied civil engineering, graduating with the highest honors.

After the completion of his studies, Cauchy accepted an engineering position in the port city of Cherbourg, where he stayed for three years. During his strenuous time in Cherbourg, Cauchy published two works of mathematical research on polyhedral and conic sections. During this time period, Cauchy's interest in engineering waned and in 1812 he returned to Paris to pursue further study abstract mathematics full time. In 1815, then a rising star in the field of mathematics, Cauchy was given professorship at L'Ecole Polytechnique and later at the College de France. These would prove to be his most productive years.

Always a devout Bourbon, Cauchy's political alliances served him well until 1830, when France again found itself in revolution. Charles X, a Bourbon, was overthrown by Louis-Phillipe de Orleans and Cauchy fled to Switzerland and later to Turin, Italy where he accepted a position teaching theoretical physics. In 1833, Cauchy again left to serve as a science tutor to the 13 year old Duke of Bordeau in Prague, the exiled Bourbon Crown Prince. It was not until 1838 that Cauchy would return to Paris, though his teaching positions would not be returned to him for his refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to the non-Bourbon crown. In 1849, through revolution again, Cauchy was able to return to teaching at the Faculte de Science, where he was a professor of mathematical astronomy, which he taught until his death just shy of a decade later. Today, Cauchy is remembered as the father of mathematical analysis through is work with complex functions and infinitesimal limitation.