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Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de 1698-1759
French mathematician

Born in St Malo, he headed a group of French academicians sent to Lapland in 1736-37 to measure a degree of the meridian. Frederick II, the Great made him president of the Berlin Academy in 1746. He formulated the principle of least action in mechanics, which states that a mechanical system evolves in such a way that its action is as small as possible. Maupertuis also formed a theory of heredity which was a century ahead of its time.