Mathematician:Alexis Fontaine des Bertins

Mathematician

French mathematician who contributed to some of the early work on differential equations.

Credited with inventing the technique (independently of Leonhard Paul Euler and Alexis Claude Clairaut) of the use of integrating factors.

Did much of his work independently of others, and questions of precedence arose as a result.

Nationality

French

History

• Born: 13 August 1704 in Claveyson, Drôme, France
• 1733: Elected a member of the Académie des sciences
• Died: 21 August 1771 in Cuiseaux, Saône-et-Loire, France

Publications

• 1764: Mémoires donnés à l'Académie royale des sciences, non imprimés dans leur temps
• 1770: Traité de calcul différentiel et intégral

Also known as

Often referred to as Alexis Fontaine, but it is wise to retain the des Bertins in order to distinguish him from the more recent Jean-Marc Fontaine.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Alexis Fontaine des Bertins": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive