Stepan Rumovsky

Stepan Yakovlevich Rumovsky was a Russian astronomer and mathematician, born on 9 November 1734 in the Vladimir Governorate and dead in Saint Petersburg on 6 July 1812, considered the first Russian astronomer of renown. He studied in Berlin under Leonhard Euler and from 1756 to 1812 taught mathematics and astronomy at the University of St. Petersburg, where he directed the observatory from 1763 and later became a vice-president of the Academy of Sciences. In 1760 he published a mathematics textbook for students, and in 1786 he published the first Russian catalogue of astronomical geographical coordinates, covering sixty-two sites. As superintendent of the Kazan Department of Education from 1803 he played a major part in founding Kazan University.