Karl Jacobi was born on December 10, 1804 in Potsdam in what was then Prussia but now Germany. He was educated at the Gymnasium in Potsdam and then the University of Berlin, studying philosophy, classics, and mathematics. He received the doctoral degree in 1825 and secured a teaching position at the Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium. From 1827 to 1842 he was professor of mathematics at the University of Königsberg
A brilliant mathematician and enthusiastic teacher, Jacobi made significant contributions in number theory, differential equations, and linear algebra, and is considered to be one of the founders of the theory of elliptic functions. The functional determinant that appears in the change of variables theorem for integrals is called the Jacobian in his honor. This theorem is of fundamental importance in just about every field of applied mathematics, including probability theory.
Jacobi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1833. He died of smallpox on February 18, 1851 in Berlin.