German theologian and mathematician born in Rostock, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, now in Germany, pioneer of mathematics applied to the theory of electricity and magnetism. The son of a theology professor at the local university, he studied medicine and mathematics at the universities of Jena and Rostock. A graduate (1747) he remained at Rostock teaching pedagogical mathematics (1748-1755), during which time he undertook research. in several different areas of mathematics such as algebraic equations, partial differential equations and in numbers negative. Appointed (1755) director of the Berlin Observatory, he was also elected to the Berlin Academy.
As director of the observatory, but without much interest in astronomy, he began to study electricity and magnetism and published the book Tentamen theoriae electricitatis et magnetismi (1759), the first work in mathematics applied to the theory of electricity and magnetism. Before publishing this work, he had agreed to move to St. Petersburg to take up a chair at the St. Petersburg Academy (1757) where he remained until his retirement (1798).
During this period he also accepted the post of instructor in the Corps of Imperial Cadets (1760) which reduced his time for research at the Academy. He died in Dorpat, Russia and his other contributions included improvements to microscopes and the demonstration of the effect of parallax on the passage of a planet through the solar disk (1764).
Picture copied from the TURNBULL WWW SERVER website:
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Source: http://www.dec.ufcg.edu.br/biografias/
Order F - Biography - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/franz-maria-ulrich.htm
