Möbius made significant contributions to the then-young field of topology. Although he was primarily a mathematician, his two most influential teachers were both in astronomy; of them Mollweide’s interests overlapped sympathetically with those of Möbius, while the other — Gauss — was quite simply the greatest mathematician of his time. Grassmann submitted work to Möbius for his doctorate, but Möbius failed to understand its implications; however he later awarded Grassmann a prize (from a field of one).