The Russian chemist and physicist Mikhail Vasilevich Lomonosov (1711-1765) proposed advanced scientific theories, but the diversity of his activities and interests hindered him from gaining widespread recognition.

Mikhail Lomonosov was born on Nov. 8, 1711, in the village of Denisovka. There being few opportunities for education in his native village, he ran away at the age of 19 to Moscow, where he entered a theological seminary and began to study for the priesthood.

Having displayed outstanding abilities as a scholar, young Lomonosov was chosen in 1735 to attend lectures given at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. This experience changed the whole direction of his career. The St. Petersburg Academy was at this time promoting a series of studies on the material resources of Siberia for which it needed trained chemists and metallurgists. From 1736 to 1741 Lomonosov studied these subjects in Germany, first at the University of Marburg, where he gained a...