Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus or Tschirnhauß (German: [ˈeːʁənfʁiːt ˈvaltɐ fɔn ˈtʃɪʁnhaʊs]; 10 April 1651 – 11 October 1708) was a German mathematician, physicist, physician, and philosopher. He introduced the Tschirnhaus transformation and is considered by some to have been the inventor of European porcelain, an invention long accredited to Johann Friedrich Böttger, while others claim porcelain had been made by English manufacturers at an even earlier date.