Born on June 21, 1781, Pithiviers, France
Died on April 25, 1840, Sceaux, France
French mathematician known for his work on definite integrals, electromagnetic theory, and probability. Originally forced to study medicine, Poisson began to study mathematics in 1798 at the École Polytechnique.
Poisson taught at École Polytechnique from 1802 until 1808 when he became an astronomer at Bureau des Longitudes. In 1809 he was appointed to the chair of pure mathematics in the newly opened Faculté des Sciences. In Recherchés sur la probabilité des jugements... , an important work on probability published in 1837, the Poisson distribution first appeared.
The Poisson distribution describes the probability that a random event will occur in a time or space interval under the conditions that the probability of the event occurring is very small, but the number of trials is very large so that the event actually occurs a few times. He published between 300 and 400 mathematical works including applications to electricity and magnetism, and astronomy.
His name is attached to a wide area of ideas, for example:-