Perhaps 50,000 perished. The great philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz—born in Leipzig in 1646—died nearly 40 years before the Lisbon earthquake, but the event would shape his legacy.

Gottfried Leibniz made conceptual advances that lie behind our digital world. Yet for centuries he was mocked for a misstep.

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is the most prestigious research funding award in Germany. The recipients receive prize money totalling 2.5 million euros which can be freely used at their ...