Vasili Yakovlevich Zinger (russian: Василий Яковлевич Цингер) (February 11, 1836 – March 2, 1907) was a prominent

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

. His name is sometimes spelled Wasili Jakowlewitsch Zinger.

Biography

Zinger was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

(

). His father was a teacher of mathematics. Zinger graduated in 1859 from

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

, where he majored in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. He earned his

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in 1867. Zinger was an active member of the

Moscow Mathematical Society The Moscow Mathematical Society (MMS) is a society of Moscow mathematicians aimed at the development of mathematics in Russia. It was created in 1864, and Victor Vassiliev is the current president. History The first meeting of the society wa ...

and the president of the Society (1886–1891). He also wrote some philosophical essays.

Zinger as botanist

Zinger was also a botanist and wrote some works about the

plants Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

of central

. ''

Zingeria ''Zingeria'' is a genus of Asian and European plants in the grass family. Their native range covers the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean regions from Romania to Kazakhstan. ''Zingeria'' was named in honour of Vasily Jakovlevich Zinger (1836� ...

'' of the

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

was named in honour of Vasily Zinger.

Notes

External links

* 1836 births 1907 deaths 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire 19th-century mathematicians from the Russian Empire Russian philosophers Russian people of German descent {{Russia-scientist-stub