Marin Mersenne

Marin Mersenne, OM was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for Mersenne prime numbers, those written in the form Mn = 2n − 1 for some integer n. He also developed Mersenne's laws, which describe the harmonics of a vibrating string, and his seminal work on music theory, Harmonie universelle, for which he is referred to as the "father of acoustics". Mersenne, an ordained Catholic priest, had many contacts in the scientific world and has been called "the center of the world of science and mathematics during the first half of the 1600s" and, because of his ability to make connections between people and ideas, "the post-box of Europe". He was also a member of the ascetical Minim religious order and wrote and lectured on theology and philosophy.

8 September 1588

Born on the same birth day (8 September): Andrei Kirilenko (politician) • Ansgar • Carsten Keller • Charles J. Guiteau • Darlene Zschech • Derrick Brown (basketball, born 1987) • Edward Hinds • Gerard Autet • John McDonnell • John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford • L. C. Greenwood • Lodi (wrestler) • Matt Barkley • Musa Nizam • Peter Whittingham • Tom Gullikson • Travis Daniels • Wilhelm Raabe

Born in the same month (September 1588): Henri II, Prince of Condé • Nicholas Lanier