ABSTRACT
In the 1660s, the fame of this Dutchman was so great that he was hired by Louis XIV to lead the newly formed Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris. At the same time, he was elected the first foreign member of the Royal Society of London. Little recognized today, Huygens was a transitional figure whose primary achievements were subsumed by later developments; thus, his contributions tend to be underreported or even assigned to other, more famous names. Yet, Huygens was one of the founders of modern science, particularly mathematical physics.
