Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and astronomer who is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. Often referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum ("the Prince of Mathematicians") and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", he made significant contributions to several fields including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, geometry, astronomy, and matrix theory. Born to poor working-class parents in Brunswick, he started displaying evidence of his genius while he was just a young child. A child prodigy, he is said to have corrected an error in his father’s payroll calculations as a small boy of three. He began to astonish his teachers with his brilliance at school and made his first ground-breaking mathematical discovery while he was still a teenager. Even though his parents were poor, he found a patron in the Duke of Brunswick who recognized his intelligence and sent him to the prestigious University of Göttingen. Eventually he established himself as a prominent mathematician in Germany and his reputation soon spread internationally. He made notable contributions to almost all fields in mathematics, but his favorite area was number theory, a field which he revolutionized with his work on complex numbers. He also published many books including ‘Disquisitiones Arithmeticae’ which is regarded as one of the most influential mathematics books ever written.