Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon was born to an aristocratic family in Montbard, France on September 7, 1707. A man of many interests and talents, Buffon first studied law and then medicine, botany, and mathematics. He was elected to the Académie Royale des Science in 1734. Buffon was appointed the director of the Paris Jardin du Roi (King's Garden) in 1740, a post he held for the rest of his life.
Buffon's greatest scientific work was Histoire Naturelle, (Natural History), published in 36 volumes between 1749 and 1789. This work is one the first scientific treatments of natural history, giving analyses of geology, zoology, and botany without reference to the Bible.
In mathematics, Buffon's famous coin problem and needle problem are considered to be among the first problems in geometric probability, and greatly stimulated the development of the subject. They are also the first problems involving continuous distributions and thus requiring calculus. The coin problem was analyzed in his paper Sur le jeu de franc-carreau (On the coin-tile game). Buffon actually carried out the needle experiment with French stick loaves.
Buffon died on April 16, 1788 in Paris.