Olinde Rodrigues Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues ( 1795 - 1851 ) , more commonly known as Olinde Rodrigues , was a French mathematician and social reformer . Biography Rodrigues was born into a well-to-do Spanish Jewish family in Bordeaux . Jews were prohibited from enrolling at the École Polytechnique , the most prestigious school in Paris , and it is still unknown how he learned his advanced mathematics . Rodrigues was awarded a doctorate in mathematics in 1816 . His dissertation contains the result now called Rodrigues ' formula . After graduation , Rodrigues became a banker . A close associate of the Comte de Saint-Simon , after the latter 's death in 1825 , he continued to champion his socialist ideals ( Saint-Simonianism ) . Rodrigues published writings on politics , social reform , and banking . In 1840 , he published a result on transformation groups . However , his work on mathematics was largely ignored , and has only relatively recently been rediscovered . He died in Paris . Why we call it the Rodrigues formula In the MacTutor biography of Rodrigues , J.J.O'Connor and E.F.Robertson provide this information : `` The fact that we know it today as the Rodrigues formula is due to Heine [ best remembered today for the Heine-Borel theorem ] . Heine was an expert on Legendre polynomials , Lamé functions and Bessel functions and he wrote a book in which he proposed that , since Hermite had shown that Rodrigues had priority in discovering the formula , then it should be known as the Rodrigues formula . `` See also Rodrigues ' rotation formula Orthogonal polynomials which discusses Rodrigues ' formula External links Simon L. Altmann ( 1989 ) . `` Hamilton , Rodrigues and the quaternion scandal '' . Mathematics Magazine 62 : 291-308 . ISSN 0025-570X . Simon L. Altmann ( 2005 ) . Rotations , Quaternions and Double Groups . Dover Publications . ISBN 0-486-44518-6 . Simon L. Altmann ; & Eduardo L.Ortiz ( eds. ) ( 2005 ) . Mathematics and social utopias in France : Olinde Rodrigues and his times . American Mathematical Society , Providence , RI. ISBN 0-8218-3860-1 . Corrects some of the traditional thinking about Rodrigues as a mathematician O'Connor , John J. , and Edmund F. Robertson . `` Olinde Rodrigues `` . MacTutor History of Mathematics archive . This article about a French mathematician is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : 1795 births | 1851 deaths | French bankers | Sephardi Jews | French Jews | French mathematicians | Natives of Bordeaux | Saint-Simonists | European mathematician stubs In other languages : Français Simon L. Altmann Hamilton , Rodrigues and the quaternion scandal Mathematics Magazine 1989 62 291-308 ISSN 0025-570X Simon L. Altmann Rotations , Quaternions and Double Groups Dover Publications 2005 ISBN 0-486-44518-6 Simon L. Altmann ; & Eduardo L.Ortiz ( eds. ) Mathematics and social utopias in France : Olinde Rodrigues and his times American Mathematical Society , Providence , RI 2005 ISBN 0-8218-3860-1 Rodrigues 