Magnus Georg von Paucker (russian: Магнус-Георг Андреевич Паукер, translit=Magnus-Georg Andreevič Pauker; – ) was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

astronomer and mathematician and the first Demidov Prize winner in 1832 for his work ''Handbuch der Metrologie Rußlands und seiner deutschen Provinzen''.

Biography

Paucker was born in the small Estonian village of Sankt Simonis (now ). In 1805, he began his studies in astronomy and physics at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, where his professors included

Georg Friedrich Parrot Georg Friedrich Parrot (15 July 1767 – 8 July 1852) was a German scientist, the first rector of the Imperial University of Dorpat (today Tartu, Estonia) in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. Education Georges-Fr ...

and Johann Wilhelm Andreas Pfaff. Between 1808–1809, Paucker took part in the surveying of the

Emajõgi Emajõgi (; meaning ''"Mother River"'') is a river in Estonia which flows from Lake Võrtsjärv through Tartu County into Lake Peipsi, crossing the city of Tartu for 10 km. It has a length of 100 km. The Emajõgi is sometimes called ...

river which was the first geodetic expedition on the territory of

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. In 1809 he contributed to the construction of the first optical telegraph line in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

from

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Tsarskoye Selo Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the c ...

. In 1811, Paucker took over as a lecturer at the

, succeeding Ernst Friedrich Knorre. In 1813 he was awarded his Ph.D. for a thesis in solid physics titled ''De nova explicatione phaenomeni elasticitatis corporum rigidorum''. Paucker left

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

(now ) in 1813 and stayed the rest of his life in

Mitau Jelgava (; german: Mitau, ; see also other names) is a state city in central Latvia about southwest of Riga with 55,972 inhabitants (2019). It is the largest town in the region of Zemgale (Semigalia). Jelgava was the capital of the united ...

(now ) where he was a professor of mathematics at the Mitau Gymnasium and an organizer of the first scientific society in Latvia, the Courland Society of Literature and Arts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paucker, Magnus Georg 1787 births 1855 deaths People from Väike-Maarja Parish People from the Governorate of Estonia Baltic-German people Astronomers from the Russian Empire 19th-century German astronomers University of Tartu alumni Demidov Prize laureates