Nikolai Lobachevsky

Mathematics took a major leap in the 19^th century.  Things didn’t stay as grounded in basics, and moved more towards abstract math. For example, Nikolai Lobachevsky introduced the idea of hyperbolic geometry(also known as Lobachevskian Geometry), in which it disproves Euclid’s Fifth postulatestated by John Playfair as  “At most one line can be drawn through any point not on a given line parallel to the given line in a plane.” The Kazan Messenger  published Lobcahevksy’s paper A Concise Outline of the Foundations of Geometry, but the paper was unfortunately rejected by the St. Petersburg Academy of sciences for publication there.

So, who was Lobachevsky? He was born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, the fifth largest city in Russia, to Ivan Lobachevsky, and Praskovia Lobachvskaya. His father was a clerk in a land survey office, and died in 1800, when Nikolai was a mere seven years old. His mother moved the three sons to Kazan near the border of Siberia. While living in Kazan, Lobachevsky went to Kazan Gymnasium (a sort of advanced High School), after finishing there in 1807 he began his collegiate studies at Kazan University. He had the intentions of studying medicine originally, but was highly influenced by Johann Christian Martin Bartels to move towards mathematics. Johann Bartels was at one point in time a professor of Carl Friedrich Gauss, and was still in contact with Gauss.

Lobachevsky graduated in  1811 with a masters degree in physics and mathematics. He proceeded to become an instructor at the university, becoming a full fledged professor in 1822. Lobachevsky was wll renowned as a professor and students said that his lectures “were detailed and clear, so that they could be understood even by poorly prepared students.” Between 1820 and 1826 Lobachevsky was the dean of the Mathematics and Physics departments.  Lobachevsky was later appointed the position of Rector of Kazan University, in which the university flourished with him at that position.

Back to the idea of Hyperbolic geometry, there are historians that believe that Gauss and Lobachevsky had correspondence and that Gauss suggested ways for Lobachevsky to move forward in his math, but there is no proof to this statement. Gauss also worked on hyperbolic geometry, but never published his works, and Janos Bolyai also worked on non-Euclidian geometry, but as Lobachevsky was the first published, he is looked at as the Father of non-Euclidian geometry, and as such has his name attached to it.  

Sources:

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Lobachevsky.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Ivanovich_Lobachevsky