Augustus DeMorgan

Augustus DeMorgan was an English mathematician, logician, and bibliographer. He was born in June 1806 at Madura, Madras presidency, India and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1823. Augustus DeMorgan had passed away on March 18, 1871, in London. Augustus was recognized as far superior in mathematical ability to any other person there, but his refusal to commit to studying resulted in his finishing only in fourth place in his class. In 1828 he became professor of mathematics at the …

…of mathematics. Augustus wrote biographies of Newton and Halley and produced a dictionary of all the important mathematicians of the seventeenth century. In 1847, he published the book Arithmetical Books, in which he describes the work of over fifteen hundred mathematicians and discusses subjects such as the history of the length of a foot. DeMorgan felt that it was important for the students to know the history of mathematics to understanding the development of the field.