OK, genealogy, and academic genealogy at that, are perhaps not the most stimulating of topics. But throw in scientific and mathematical giants such as Euler, Bernoulli, Lagrange, Poisson, Hadamard, and a cameo by Leonardo da Vinci himself, and what began as a dry exercise turned into a fascinating romp through history.
Thanks to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, and some curiosity, I was able to trace back my academic genealogy from my PhD advisor, to his PhD advisor, to his PhD advisor, etc., all the way back until the records gave out.
Amazingly, I was able to trace my academic heritage all the way back to the year 1380, to an academic ancestor named Georgios Plethon Gemistos, who was a Greek scholar of neoplatonic philosophy.
And here is his picture:
Below, starting with Gemistos, for each person I state the advisor’s name and the year of his dissertation, if it is known. A link to the appropriate webpage is also given, if I could find one.
Georgios_Plethon_Gemistos, 1380
Basilios Bessarion, 1436
Johannes Argyropoulos, 1444
* Leonardo da Vinci was also a student
Johann (Johannes Kapnion) Reuchlin, 1477, 1481
Jan (Johannes Campensis) van Campen, 1519
Nicolas (Nicolaes Cleynaerts) Clénard, 1515, 1521
Johannes (Johann Sturm) Sturmius, 1527
Petrus (Pierre de La Ramée) Ramus, 1536
Theodor Zwinger, 1553
Petrus Ryff, 1584
Emmanuel Stupanus, 1613
Nikolaus Eglinger, 1660, 1661
Johann Bernoulli, 1690, 1694
Leonhard Euler, 1726
Joseph Lagrange
Simeon Poisson, 1800
Michel Chasles, 1814
Gaston Darboux, 1866
C. Émile (Charles) Picard, 1877
Jacques Salomon Hadamard, 1892
Szolem Mandelbrojt, 1923
Hugh Daniel Brunk, 1944
Timothy Robertson, 1966
Edward Wegman, 1968
Carey Priebe, 1993 (and David Marchette, 1996)
Kendall Giles, 2007
