Poisson studied mathematics at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, under Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Pierre Simon Laplace, and Jean Baptiste Fourier. He held academic positions at Ecole Polytechnique and the Sorbonne.
Poisson contributed to the theories of electricity and magnetism and studied the motion of the moon. In mathematics, Poisson contributed to the calculus of variations, differential geometry, and of course probability theory. Poisson found the limiting form of the binomial distribution that is now named after him. Indeed, the Poisson distribution is now considered one of the most important distributions in probability, and more generally, the Poisson process is a random process of fundamental importance. Poisson wrote Recherches sur la probabilité des jugements, published in 1837.