Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (December 1, 1792 – February 24, 1856), called the “Copernicus of
Geometry,” revolutionized the subject by helping to create a whole new
branch, non-Euclidean geometry. His father died when Nikolai was
seven and his mother moved her very poor family from Nizhny
Novgorod to the city of Kazan at the edge of Siberia. Nikolai attended
the Gymnasium, financed by a government scholarship, and in 1807
entered Kazan State University, which had been founded in 1804, as a
result of reforms by Czar Alexander I. Lobachevsky originally intended
to study medicine, but, influenced by distinguished professors whom the university had attracted from
Germany, he took a broad scientific course involving mathematics and physics. In 1811 he received a
Master’s degree in physics and mathematics. At the age of twenty-one, Lobachevsky became a member
of the teaching staff.