2. Biography
Scientifical contributions
Contributions to development of Kazan State
University
Is Lobachevsky still well known in Tatarstan?
3. “There is no
branch of
mathematics, ho
wever
abstract, which
may not some
day be applied to
phenomena of the
real world”
4. Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky was born on
December first 1792 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. His
father Ivan Maksimovich Lobachevsky was a clerk in
the office of a land surveying company until he passed
away in 1800. After the death of his father seven year
old Nikolai moved to Kazan in western Russia on the
edge of Siberia with his mother and two brothers.
While in Kazan, Nikolai attended Kazan Gymnasium
which is the equivalent of attending an American
magnet school rather than public. Nikolai graduated
in 1807 and decided to further his education at the
newly founded Kazan State University.
5.
6. As a student at Kazan University, Lobachevsky was
influenced to pursue the study of mathematics by professor
Johann Christian Martin Bartels, a former teacher and
friend of German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.
Lobachevsky received a Master's degree in physics and
mathematics in 1811, in 1814 he was appointed to a
lectureship at the university and by 1822 he was made a full
professor. It did not take long for Lobachevsky to make an
influence at the university, from 1820 to 1825 he was dean
of the Mathematics and Physics Departments and head
librarian from 1825 to 1835. In 1826 M.N. Musin-Pushkin
was appointed as the new curator of Kazan University and
found Lobachevsky to be someone he could work well with.
As a result in 1827 Lobachevsky became rector of
Kazan University, a position which he held for the next 19
years.
9. Lobachevsky contributed to the mathematical world by
publishing many books, the first of which was a Concise
Outline of the Foundations of Geometry. The text did not
survive, but the ideas were incorporated into his first
publication on hyperbolic geometry. Throughout his
career he also authored the books New Foundations of
Geometry (1835-1838), Geometrical Investigations on the
Theory of Parallels (1840)
and Pangeometry (1855). Lobachevsky is credited with
developing a method for the approximation of the roots of
algebraic equations. This method is now known
as Dandelin-Gräffe method, named after two other
mathematicians who discovered it independently from
Lobachevsky.
10.
11. Lobachevsky is known as the one of the founding
fathers of non-Euclidean geometry. His main
achievement is the “development” of non-Euclidean
geometry and being the first in the world to publish
anything on this topic. The non-Euclidean geometry that
Lobachevsky developed was called hyperbolic geometry.
Lobachevsky replaced Euclid's parallel postulate with
his own postulate that states there is more than one
parallel line through any given point; Lobachevsky’s
greatest piece of work was completed in 1823, however it
was never published in it’s original form until 1909.
12. Lobachevsky devoted the whole life to the
development of the Kazan State University, which is
situated in Kazan, the capital of the Kazan region. In
1827 Lobachevsky was elected rector of the Kazan
University. Later on he was reelected six
times, heading the university for twenty years. As the
rector he energetically and competently devoted
himself to different activities:
13. He organized and led a vigorous program of the
erection of the university complex of buildings:
library (for many years he was director of the
university library), an astronomical and magnetic
observatories, new medical facilities and
physics, chemistry and anatomy laboratories.
Understanding quite well the importance of the
library for education, Lobachevsky used to go to
St. Petersburg to select and buy books himself.
16. He read a number of special courses for
students. Lobachevsky invested much effort in
raising not only the standards of education in
the university, but also in the local schools
and gymnasiums. He even found time to give
lectures on physics to the general public
during the years 1838 to 1840 and opened free
access to the public to the library and museum
of the university.
17. Two natural disasters struck the university while
he was Rector of Kazan: a cholera epidemic
in 1830 and a big fire in 1842. Owing to resolute
and reasonable measures taken by Lobachevsky
the damage to the University was reduced to a
minimum. for his activity during the cholera
epidemic Lobachevsky received a message of
thanks from the Emperor.
18.
19.
20. Now, we can conclude that Nikolay Lobachevsky is still
one of the most popular and significant persons in
Tatarstan region. His contribution to the development
of Kazan State University and Russian science in the
19th century, spreading of education is one the most
important contributions in Tatarstan region and in
Russia. It’s one of those who citizens of Kazan may be
proud of.
