Johann Andreas Segner

Johann Andreas Segner

Johann Andreas Segner's portrait
Born 9 October 1704
Pozsony (now (Bratislava), Kingdom of Hungary
Died 5 October 1777
Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg
Citizenship Kingdom of Hungary
Nationality Hungarian[1]
Fields mathematics
Institutions Jena
Göttingen
Halle
Doctoral advisor Georg Erhard Hamberger
Simon Paul Hilscher
Doctoral students Johann Georg Büsch
Known for Segner wheel

Johann Segner (Hungarian: János András Segner, German: Johann Andreas von Segner, Slovak: Ján Andrej Segner, Latin: Iohannes Andreas de Segner; October 9, 1704 October 5, 1777) was a Hungarian scientist. He was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, in the former Hungarian capital city of Pozsony (today Bratislava).

Johann Segner's ancestors came from Styria to Pressburg[2] in the Kingdom of Hungary; by the 18th century. He studied at Pressburg, Győr and Debrecen. In 1725 Segner began studying at the University of Jena. In 1729 he received a medical certificate and returned to Pressburg, where he started to work as a physician, as well as in Debrecen. In 1732 he returned to Jena for his master's degree. In 1735 Segner became the first professor of mathematics, a position created for him, at the University of Göttingen. In 1755 he became a professor at Halle, where he established an observatory.

One of the best-known scientists of his age, Segner was a member of the academies of Berlin, London, and Saint Petersburg. According to Mathematics Genealogy Project, as of February 2013, he has over 66 thousand academic descendants, out of the total 170 thousand mathematicians in the database.

He was the first scientist to use the reactive force of water and constructed the first water-jet, the Segner wheel, which resembles one type of modern lawn sprinkler. Segner, also produced the first proof of Descartes' rule of signs. Historians of science remember him as the father of the water turbine. The lunar crater Segner is named after him, as is asteroid 28878 Segner.

Notes

  1. Pöss, Ondrej (2012). "Karpatskí Nemci". In Myrtil Nagy. Naše národnostné menšiny. Šamorín: Fórum inštitút pre výskum menšín. pp. 9–12. ISBN 978-80-89249-57-2.
  2. Segner biography

Works in modern edition

External links

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