Gompertz

Benjamin Gompertz

Born: 5 March 1779 in London, England
Died: 14 July 1865 in London, England

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Gompertz was self educated, reading Newton and Maclaurin, since he was denied admission to universities as he was Jewish. He applied the calculus to actuarial questions and he is best remembered for Gompertz's Law of Mortality. Gompertz, in 1825, showed that the mortality rate increases in a geometric progression. Hence, when death rates are plotted on a logarithmic scale, a straight line known as the Gompertz function is obtained.

Gompertz also wrote about scientific instruments, writing Theory of astronomical instruments (1822), A new instrument called the differential sextant (1825) and On the converted pendulum (1829).

He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1819.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. P F Hooker, Benjamin Gompertz, Journal of the Institute of Actuaries 91 (1965), 203-212. 
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