Life
He was born at Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was descended from Johannes Aepinus (1499–1553), the first to adopt the Greek form (αἰπεινός) of the family name Hugk or Huck, and a leading theologian and controversialist at the time of the Protestant Reformation. After studying medicine for a time, Franz Aepinus devoted himself to the physical and mathematical sciences, in which he soon gained such distinction that he was admitted a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1755 he was briefly the director of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut. In 1757 he settled in St Petersburg as member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and professor of physics, and remained there till his retirement in 1798. The rest of his life was spent at Dorpat.
He enjoyed the favor of Empress Catherine II of Russia, who appointed him tutor to her son Paul, and endeavoured to establish normal schools throughout the empire under his direction. In 1761, Aepinus was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
In 1764, he was appointed as a head of the cryptographic service of Russia, and held this position till 1797, during 33 years.
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