Georg Riemann was born in Breselenz, Germany in 1826. He studied mathematics at the University of Göttingen, under Carl Friedrich Gauss, receiving his Ph.D. in 1851. In 1857, Riemann was appointed professor of Mathematics at Göttingen, a position that he held for the rest of his life.
Riemann is considered one of the most important mathematicians of the 19'th century. He made fundamental contributions in complex analysis, geometry, abelian functions, topology, and number theory. His work in geometry formed part of the foundation for Albert Einstein's special relativity 60 years later. The Riemann hypothesis, concerning roots of the Riemann zeta function, is considered one of the most important unsolved problems in mathematics.