Osip Ivanovich Somov

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Born: 1 June 1815 in Otrada, Moscow gubernia (now oblast), Russia
Died: 26 April 1876 in St Petersburg, Russia

Osip Somov attended secondary school in Moscow and then entered Moscow University to study mathematics and physics. He graduated in 1835 and, from 1839 taught at Moscow Commercial College.

From 1841 Somov attended the University of St Petersburg where he was awarded a doctorate and was appointed professor of applied mathematics. He taught at the University of St Petersburg for 25 years.

Somov originated a geometrical approach to theoretical mechanics in Russia. He studied the rotation of a solid body about a point, studying examples arising from the work of Euler, Poinsot, Lagrange and Poisson.

Other topics Somov studied included elliptic functions and their application to mechanics.