About

A mathematician from Beaune, Monge developed and systematised the methods later known as descriptive geometry while working at the engineering school of Mézières. Their military applications initially prevented their wider publication. Appointed examiner of naval candidates in 1783, he served as minister of the navy from August 1792 to April 1793. As a member of the Provisional Executive Council, he signed its proclamation arranging the execution of Louis XVI. After leaving office, Monge worked on the mobilisation of arms production, coordinating aspects of cannon manufacture and contributing to technical instruction on cannon, powder and saltpetre. He subsequently played a leading part in organising the École centrale des travaux publics, later the École polytechnique, and shaped much of its scientific curriculum. He joined the French expedition to Egypt in 1798 and became the first president of the Institut d’Égypte. Removed from the reconstituted Institut de France in 1816, he died in Paris in 1818.