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After Georg Kaspar Prenner, portrait of Mikhail Lomonosov, reproduced in Alexander Smith, Intermediate Text Book of Chemistry (New York: The Century Company, 1919), courtesy of the Science History Institute, public domain · Halftone reproduction of a portrait painting of Mikhail Lomonosov after Georg Kaspar Prenner, printed as the frontispiece of Alexander Smith's Intermediate Text Book of Chemistry (The Century Company, New York, 1919), from the Science History Institute's digital collections; the book page is captioned 'M. W. Lomonossov, Russian author, statesman, and chemist, 1711-1765'. The institute's record dates the painting 1787 and lists the rights as Public Domain Mark 1.0. The file used is the institute's 2,880 x 4,343 pixel derivative, cropped to the plate and downscaled once to 948 x 1,200 pixels; nothing was upscaled. A reproduction of a later painting after another artist's work, not a documented sitting. Caveat: the date and the location of the painting that was reproduced are not stated on the record, so the picture is shown as a depiction, not a certified lifetime likeness. · Public domain (Science History Institute Public Domain Mark 1.0; 1919 US publication)
chemist · Early Modern
Mikhail Lomonosov
1711–1765
Known For
scientificliteraryeducational
Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
As professor of chemistry at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1745 he built its chemical laboratory and argued for atomic and molecular explanations, a quantitative method and heat as molecular motion; he stated a principle of conservation of matter and, from the 1761 transit of Venus, concluded that Venus has an atmosphere, although historians dispute his priority over Lavoisier.
He pressed for a university in Moscow, and his letter to Ivan Shuvalov laid the groundwork for the plan of Moscow University, founded by decree in 1755 with faculties of philosophy, law and medicine; the university now bears his name.
He was also a poet and a student of the Russian language who contributed a scientific vocabulary; his 1739 'Ode on the Taking of Khotin' is regarded as revolutionary, and critics such as Belinsky dated modern Russian poetry from it.
Moments That Reveal Them
At the 1761 transit of Venus he watched from the roof of his own house, saw the Sun's edge blur before Venus entered, looked away because he suspected tired eyes, then looked again and saw the black segment; from the blur and from a bulge at Venus's exit he reasoned by refraction that Venus has an atmosphere, and his report was printed within two weeks of its submission.
The episode is consistent with a habit of re-checking his own observations before drawing a conclusion from them. Experimentation
Before the 1761 transit he judged Aepinus's preparations unsatisfactory and ordered him to let Krasilnikov and Kurganov observe at the Academy's observatory; Aepinus refused and observed elsewhere, one stage of a feud that had begun when Lomonosov protested Aepinus's unapproved communications about the 1759 mercury-freezing results.
The sequence is consistent with a willingness to enter open disputes with powerful colleagues over scientific and institutional matters. Conflict Tolerance
Turning Points
In December 1730, aged nineteen, he borrowed three rubles and a jacket and joined a trade convoy to Moscow, a 1,170 km journey partly on foot, to seek the education he could not get at home; in 1735-36 he was one of twelve students sent to the St. Petersburg Academy and then abroad, which turned him from the clergy toward science.
The journey and what followed are consistent with a determination to keep pursuing an education against long odds. Persistence
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Sources
- Mikhail Lomonosov (Q58720), verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-11-05): label 'Mikhail Lomonosov', description 'Russian polymath (1711-1765)', born 1711 (three day-level values recorded), died April 1765 (two values), citizen of the Russian Empire, many occupations, Korean label 미하일 로모노소프. Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 'Mikhail Vasilevich Lomonosov' (entry read via Encyclopedia.com; the page was read in a summarised fetch, not word for word). CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE: chemist and physicist born 1711, studied at the St. Petersburg Academy, Marburg and the Freiberg mining academy (1736-41), appointed professor of chemistry at the Academy in 1745 where he built a chemical laboratory and taught one of the earliest courses in practical chemistry; argued that heat is a motion of the molecules of matter when most scientists treated it as a substance, stressed atomic-molecular explanation and quantitative measurement; observed the 1761 transit of Venus and concluded Venus has an atmosphere; contributed to the scientific study and vocabulary of Russian; wrote a controversial history of Russia. Critical voice: calls his 'domineering nature and quarrelsome disposition' a brake on his creative energies, says claims that he anticipated Lavoisier on conservation of mass are 'certainly exaggerated', and says much of his work was limited-circulation dissertations, unfinished or unpublished.
- William B. Ashworth Jr., 'Mikhail Lomonosov', Scientist of the Day, Linda Hall Library (19 November 2018; read in full, short post). Names him as the Academy's first native Russian appointee (the claim is not used because other sources differ), co-founder of Moscow University in 1755, the only one of hundreds of 1761 transit-of-Venus observers to see that the nimbus indicated an atmosphere, an early formulator of conservation of matter in reactions, founder of a glass factory for coloured mosaic elements, and poet and historian; says he was unappreciated in Russia for fifty years after his death. Short, admiring, unsourced characterisations; used only for orientation on breadth.
- Robert P. Crease and Vladimir Shiltsev, 'Fueling Peter's Mill: Mikhail Lomonosov's Educational Training in Russia and Germany, 1731-1741', Physics in Perspective (preprint read in full, about 84,000 characters). Scholarly article built on letters from Wolff, Schumacher, Henckel and others: his 1730 journey to Moscow on borrowed money, the false claim of noble origin that nearly got him expelled, selection among twelve students for the St. Petersburg Academy in 1735-36, study under Christian Wolff at Marburg, debts, brawling and a fine paid by Wolff, the 1739-40 quarrels with Henckel at Freiberg and his departure without authorisation, the 1739 'Ode on the Taking of Khotin' and his blunt criticism of Trediakovsky's verse rules. Both authors are admirers (Shiltsev wrote the translations below); Henckel's own accusations are one-sided and are not used.
- Vladimir Shiltsev (Fermilab), 'Lomonosov's Discovery of Venus Atmosphere in 1761: English Translation of Original Publication with Commentaries' (read in full, 16 pages). Translation of Lomonosov's own 1761 report (submitted 4 July, 250 copies printed 17 July 1761, German version printed in August) with a scholarly commentary: he observed from his own house with a 4.5-foot refractor, was a key organiser of the Academy's 1761 transit programme (eight observers in Russia), judged Aepinus's preparations unsatisfactory and ordered him to let Krasilnikov and Kurganov use the Academy observatory, which Aepinus refused (a feud); Sharonov's comparison of the observers, which found Lomonosov alone gave the correct physical explanation. A sympathetic commentator; the 2012 reconstruction supports the observation.
- Vladimir Shiltsev, 'Mikhail Lomonosov. Meditations on Solidity and Fluidity of Bodies (1760). English translation and commentary' (commentary read in full). Documents the December 1759 mercury-freezing experiments with Braun, Lomonosov's protest that Aepinus's communications abroad had not been approved by the Academy (the start of their feud), his corpuscular model, and its own cautions: the experimental readings and the predicted density ratio did not hold, Soviet scholars 'somewhat hyperbolically' overstated his role in the conservation laws, but the 1756 sealed-vessel lead experiment still looks like a real early demonstration, while Pomper and others are sceptical. Sympathetic, but explicit about the limits.
- Moscow State University, History of the University, 'The Founding of Moscow University' (page read in full). Says the foundation was made possible by Lomonosov's efforts, that his letter to I. I. Shuvalov laid the groundwork for the blueprint, that the three faculties (philosophy, law, medicine) opened to conform to his scheme, that he favoured merit over birth, and that the decree was signed on 12 January 1755 (old style) with inauguration on 26 April; Shuvalov, the Empress's favourite, advanced the project. An institution describing its own founder.
- Vladimir Shiltsev, Physics Today (vol. 65, issue 2, 2012), as reposted on 3 Quarks Daily (only the excerpt was read, not the full article). Says he was both theorist and experimenter, often pursued a topic for years or decades, held that phenomena arise from the mechanical interactions of tiny particles, coined 'physical chemistry' in 1752, and in 1756 heated lead plates in an airtight vessel and found the total weight unchanged. Partly read; admiring.
- Science History Institute Digital Collections, 'Frontispiece: Portrait of Mikhail Vasilʹevich Lomonosov', from Alexander Smith, Intermediate Text Book of Chemistry (New York: The Century Company, 1919); record opened live, rights 'Public Domain Mark 1.0'. Used for the portrait only, not for any trait row.