Pierre Alphonse Laurent (18 July 1813 – 2 September 1854) was a French mathematician, engineer, and Military Officer best known for discovering the Laurent series, an expansion of a

function Function or functionality may refer to: Computing * Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards * Function model, a structured representation of processes in a system * Function object or functor or functionoid, a concept of object-oriente ...

into an

infinite Infinite may refer to: Mathematics * Infinite set, a set that is not a finite set *Infinity, an abstract concept describing something without any limit Music *Infinite (group), a South Korean boy band *''Infinite'' (EP), debut EP of American m ...

power series In mathematics, a power series (in one variable) is an infinite series of the form \sum_^\infty a_n \left(x - c\right)^n = a_0 + a_1 (x - c) + a_2 (x - c)^2 + \dots where ''an'' represents the coefficient of the ''n''th term and ''c'' is a con ...

, generalizing the

Taylor series In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor serie ...

expansion. He was born in Paris, France. His father, Pierre Michel Laurent (1769 – 1841) was French, whereas his mother, Eleanor Cheshire (1778 – 1840) was English. Pierre Laurent entered the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1830 and graduated in 1832 as one of the best students in his year. Afterwards, he joined the engineering corps as a second lieutenant, before attending the École d'Application at Metz until he was sent to Algeria. Laurent returned to France from Algeria around 1840 and spent six years directing operations for the enlargement of the port of Le Havre on the English Channel coast. Rouen had been the main French port up to the nineteenth century but the hydraulic construction projects on which Laurent worked in Le Havre turned it into France's main seaport. It is clear that Laurent was a good engineer, putting his deep theoretical knowledge to good practical use. It was while Laurent was working on the construction project at Le Havre that he began to write his first mathematical papers. He submitted a memoir for the Grand Prize of the

Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at th ...

of 1842. His result was contained in a memoir submitted for the Grand Prize of the

in 1843, but his submission was after the due date, and the paper was not published and never considered for the prize. Laurent died at age 41 in Paris. His work was not published until after his death. Possibly the result was first discovered by

Weierstrass Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (german: link=no, Weierstraß ; 31 October 1815 – 19 February 1897) was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics ...

in an 1841 paper, but not published at the time..

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* 1813 births 1854 deaths Scientists from Paris 19th-century French mathematicians Mathematical analysts {{France-mathematician-stub

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