Laplace, Pierre-Simon de
The Frenchman Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (1749 - 1827), son to a land owner, was a mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and physicist.
He worked on differential equations, probability, statistics, and celestial mechanics.
He proved the first general central limit theorem. He showed that, if combining observations, each one of which was itself the mean of a large number of independent observations, then the least squares estimates would maximize the likelihood function introduced by Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss.
He came close to the concept of the black hole by suggesting that gravity could influence light, and that there could be massive stars whose gravity is so great that not even light could escape from their surface.
He lent his name to the Laplace operator, the Laplace transform, the Laplace distribution, and Laplace's demon.