Nicolas Fuss

Nicolas Fuss, also known as Nikolai Fuss, was a Swiss mathematician, living most of his life in Russia.

Biography

Fuss was born in Basel, Switzerland. He moved to Saint Petersburg to serve as a mathematical assistant to Leonhard Euler from 1773-1783, and remained there until his death. He contributed to spherical trigonometry, differential equations, the optics of microscopes and telescopes, differential geometry, and actuarial science. He also contributed to Euclidean geometry, including the problem of Apollonius.
In 1797, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. From 1800-1826, Fuss served as the permanent secretary to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1812. He died in Saint Petersburg.

Nicolas Fuss was married to Albertine Benedikte Philippine Luise Euler. Albertine Euler was the daughter of Leonhard Euler's eldest son Johann Albrecht Euler and his wife Anna Sophie Charlotte Hagemeister. Pauline Fuss, a daughter of Nicolas and Albertine, married Russian chemist Genrikh Struve. Nicolas's son Paul Heinrich Fuss edited the first attempt at a collected works of Euler. Paul Heinrich was a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg from 1823 and its secretary from 1826. Nicolas's son Georg Albert, was from 1839 an astronomer in Pulkovo and then from 1848 in Vilnius and also published on magnetism.