At the age of nineteen, Bernhard Riemann enrolled at the University of Gottingen with the intention of pursuing studying of theology and philosophy. However, he became so interested in the study of mathematics that he devoted his life entirely to that field. As a graduate student at the Gottingen, Riemann studied under Gauss, who was unusually impressed with his protege's abilities. In his report to the faculty, Gauss said that Reimann's dissertation come from "a creative, active, truly mathematical mind, and of a gloriously fertile originality." Coming from prince of mathematicians, that was a compliment indeed!
After receiving his degree, Riemann waned to stay at Gottingen as a member of the faculty. In order to prove himself, he first had to deliver a "probationary" lecture to his former teachers. When he submitted three possible topics for his oration, Gauss chose the third, "On the Hypotheses That Underlie the Foundation of Geometry. Delivered in 1854 and published in 1868 (two years after his death), Reimann's lecture is considered by many to be one of the highlights of modern mathematical history.
Unlike Gauss, Lobachevsky, and Bolyai (each whom assumed that through a point not on a line, more than one parallel existed), Riemann denied the existance of all parallel lines!. He philosophized that we could just as well assume that all lines eventually intersect as assume that some (parallel lines) do not intersect.
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wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_riemann
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