"16th century mathematician and astronomer. Colleague of Copernicus, among other things. Reinvented trigonometry to the modern basis using right triangles instead of circles as a foundation of the six key terms. A bunch of other stuff. I could probably go on for days," she said, shrugging a little.

"But I remember one of his poems really helped with solving a problem back home. My brother would have been gone forever without it."