Claude Henri Gaspard de Prony

Claude Henri Gaspard de Prony was a French mathematician and engineer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is best known for developing the "method of least squares," a mathematical technique to find the best fit line through data points, which is fundamental in statistics and data analysis. Prony also made significant contributions to engineering, particularly in mechanical and civil engineering, and helped advance scientific research in France. His work laid important groundwork for modern statistical methods and engineering practices, influencing fields that rely on analyzing and modeling real-world data.