Quetelet and Dandelin of Brussels (Q1272412)

For the visitor of Brussels, interested in history of mathematics, the biographies and further information are given of 1) Lambert Adolphe Jacob Quetelet (born February 22, 1796 Ghent, died February 17, 1874 Brussels) and 2) Germinal Pierre Dandelin (born April 12, 1794 Le Bourget, died February 15, 1854 Brussels). Both attended schools at Ghent and studied mathematics at the University of Ghent. In 1816 they completed their first public collaboration, writing and producing an opera. From 1819 to 1825 they produced together 17 mathematical papers primarily considering conic sections and they obtained several very elegant new results. Quetelet's first statistical publication appeared in 1825. In this year Dandelin was appointed Professor of Metallurgy at the new University of Liège, in 1843 he returned to Brussels and worked there till 1854 in the Academy of Science. 2 photos are reproduced: The old observatory building where the Quetelet family lived from 1832 and Quetelet's statue in the gardens of the Royal Academy, of which he was the first Permanent Secretary. 2 references (of 1872 and 1889) are given. Addendum: It may be of interest that in 1974 a post stamp with the portrait of Quetelet was edited and a Mémorial A. Quetelet publié à l'occasion du centième anniversaire de sa mort. Brüssel (1975) and the biography in Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Vol. VIII, 64-66 (edited by S. Kotz and N. L. Johnson) (1987).