Gottfried Heinsius

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Gottfried Heinsius (April 1709 – May 21, 1769) was a German mathematician, geographer and astronomer. He was born near Naumburg in Saxony. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig in 1733 with a thesis on De viribus motricibus and later became a professor of mathematics there. He may have been the first to publish news about Halley's Comet returning in 1759. From 1736 to 1743 he taught in St. Petersburg, working with Leonhard Euler and becoming a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. While in Russia, he helped prepare a horoscope for Tsar Ivan VI. He died in Leipzig. The Moon crater Heinsius is named after him.