in 1712, bonnet sat in the royal society's committee that investigated the priority dispute between isaac newton and gottfried leibniz over the development of the calculus. that committee subscribed a report, which newton himself had drafted, identifying newton as "first inventor" of the calculus and absolving john keill of libel against another fellow of the royal society for having suggested that leibniz might have taken some of his results from newton's unpublished letters. in 1713 bonnet was elected as a foreign member of the prussian academy of sciences.