Timofei Fedorovic Osipovsky

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Timofei Osipovsky graduated from the St Petersburg Teachers Seminary. He was to became a teacher at Kharkov University.

Kharkov University was founded in 1805. The city of Kharkov, thanks to its educational establishments, became one of the most important cultural and educational centres of Ukraine. Osipovsky was appointed to Kharkov University in 1805, the year of the foundation of the University. In 1813 he became rector of the University.

In 1816 Ostrogradski began studying at Kharkov University under Osipovsky. However in 1820 Osipovsky was suspended from his post on religious grounds. This had a rather serious consequence for his most famous pupil Ostrogradski for the minister of religious affairs and national education refused to confirm his degree and required him to retake the examinations. Knowing that the decision was a consequence of the treatment of Osipovsky, Ostrogradski refused to retake the examinations and never received his degree.

Osipovsky's most famous work was the three volume book A Course of Mathematics (1801-1823). This soon became a standard university text and was used in universities for many years.

Other work by Osipovsky outside mathematics was in physics, astronomy and philosophy.

Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson

JOC/EFR © December 1997 Copyright information	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
The URL of this page is: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Osipovsky.html