Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich (18.05.1711 — 13.02.1787) was a Croatian scientist and philosopher. He was born in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik). He studied at the Roman College, where he was professor of mathematics (from 1740). In 1764—70 he was professor at the university in Pavia, in 1770 — 73 in Milan, and in 1773 — 83 he lived in Paris, where he was in charge of optical work for the navy. His research concerned mathematics, mechanics, optics, astronomy and meteorology. In his treatise “A theory of natural philosophy reduced to the single law of the forces existing in nature” (1758) he set out the main propositions of his doctrine of so-called dynamic atomism, developing for the first time a theory of the structure of matter based on the idea of unextended, indivisible, identical material points and of the forces that act between them and obey a certain universal law. In his understanding of space, time and motion Boscovich anticipated some of the ideas of relativity, and his atomism contained in embryo the idea of a connection between the particles of matter and their motion. He pointed to the possible existence of a geometry different from the Euclidean one. He had a great influence on the development of physics in the first half of the 19th century.
A foreign member of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1760).