In 1837 Listing became a teacher of machine drawing, machine theory, and
applied mathematics at the
Höhere Gewerbeschule in
Hanover. Two years later, in 1839, he was appointed professor of physics as the successor to
Wilhelm Eduard Weber, and in 1849 he became professor of mathematics in Göttingen. Together with his friend, the ophthalmologist
Christian Georg Theodor Ruete, he researched the laws of eye movement. Encouraged by his mentor, Gauss, Listing began to specialize in topology, then known as analysis situs. In 1847 he published
Vorstudien zur Topologie (Preliminary Studies in Topology), although he had already used the term “topology” in letters a decade earlier. This book helped introduce the term into general use. Independently of
August Ferdinand Möbius, Listing also discovered the special properties of the
Möbius strip in 1858 and went further in exploring the properties of strips with higher-order twists (
paradromic rings). He discovered topological invariants which came to be called
Listing numbers. In
ophthalmology,
Listing's law describes an essential element of extraocular eye muscle coordination. In
geodesy, he coined in 1872 the term "
geoid" for the idealized geometric surface of the
figure of the Earth, as previously conceptualized by his doctoral adviser,
Gauss. Listing was elected a member of the
Göttingen Academy of Sciences in 1861 and became an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1879. == Personal life ==