Is the following construct (grammatically) correct?
Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler's contribution to number theory was [...]
It sounds clumsy to me; however, this rewrite sounds pedantic:
Leonhard Euler was a mathematician and physicist. His contribution to number theory was [...]
Answer
"Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler's contribution to number theory was [...]" is grammatical and natural.
You're right that the rewrite you suggest is pedantic, but that's just one way of rewriting it. If the remainder of the sentence is short, you can also rewrite it as, for example:
Leonhard Euler, an 18th-century Swiss mathematician and physicist, introduced and popularized modern notation and terminology, particularly in mathematical analysis.
There's more than one way to skin a cat.
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