George-Lois Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

George-Lois Leclerc de Buffon began his post-secondary schooling studying Law but showed great interest in mathematics. He later began attending lectures in medicine but was ejected from the program for dueling. He went on to study botany. Some of his first contributions to probability theory include producing a solution to the St. Petersburg problem. He also proposed and addressed new probability problems. Two worth mention are Buffon's coin and needle problems. These two problems helped introduce a branch of probability grounded in geometry. The needle problem he proposed is especially interesting since it facilitates calculating a probability which is inversely proportional to $\pi$ and thus can be used to approximate $\pi$.

Buffon produced many works on various mathematical topics, inserting his own ideas into many academic circles. He translated Newton's work from English to French, taking a position on the controversy centered on whether Newton or Leibniz discovered infinitesimal calculus first. He shared his own philosophy that mathematics are truths by definition rather than truths in the physical sciences which, instead of being based on assumptions we have made, are based only on facts (Heyde & Seneta, 2001, p. 79).

Buffon also contributed to the development of data analysis when he wrote about the mortality rates of London and Paris. He compared characteristics of each city to show which population was healthier. Thomas Jefferson took interest in his writings, and they influenced his Notes on the State of Virginia. When he visited France as the U.S. Minister to France, Jefferson met with Buffon in Paris.