(1746–1818), French mathematician. Gaspard Monge was born in Beaune in 1746. He invented descriptive geometry and pioneered the development of analytical geometry, both of which have since become part of projective geometry. He taught at the École Militaire de Mézières from 1768 to 1783 and was appointed professor of hydraulics at the Louvre in 1780. He also served on the committee of weights and measure that established the metric system in 1791, and he helped found the École Polytechnique. (See also Mathematics.)