Jakob Bernoulli met Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke on a trip to England in 1676, after which he devoted his life to science and mathematics. He lectured at the University of Basel from 1682, becoming Professor of Mathematics in 1687.
His masterwork was Ars Conjectandi (the Art of Conjecturing), a groundbreaking work on probability theory. It was published eight years after his death in 1713 by his nephew Nicholas. The terms Bernoulli trial and Bernoulli Numbers result from this work, and are named after him.
Jacob Bernoulli was the brother of Johann Bernoulli and the uncle of Daniel Bernoulli.
Jacob Bernoulli was appointed professor of mathematics in Basel in 1687 and the two brothers began to study the calculus as presented by Leibniz in his 1684 paper on the differential calculus in Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis, itemque Tangentibus...
Johann Bernoulli's boasts were the first cause of Jacob's attacks on him and Jacob wrote that Johann was his pupil whose only achievements were to repeat what his teacher had taught him.