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Today on the Google home page is a special Google logo, Doodle, for Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß on his 241st birthday. Johann is a German mathematician who made his first groundbreaking mathematical discovery as a teenager. He was born on April 30, 1777 in Braunschweig, Germany and died at the age of 77 on February 23, 1855 in Göttingen, Germany.
He is referred to as Princeps mathematicorum, which is Latin for "the foremost of mathematicians" and "the greatest mathematician since antiquity." He is referred to as one of the most influential people in math and touched on number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, magnetic fields, astronomy, matrix theory, and optics.
He was awarded the Lalande Prize in 1810 and the Copley Medal in 1838 and has a laundry list of awards and recognitions. He really has a fascinating life, you can read about it on Wikipedia.
Forum discussion at Google+.
