Leo Königsberger
Leo Königsberger (15 October 1837 – 15 December 1921) was a German mathematician, and historian of science. He is best known for his three-volume biography[1] of Hermann von Helmholtz, which remains the standard reference on the subject.
Leo Königsberger | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg.webp) Photograph of Leo Königsberger, 1886 | |
| Born | 15 October 1837 |
| Died | 15 December 1921 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin (Ph.D., 1860) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Heidelberg University of Vienna |
| Thesis | De motu puncti versus duo fixa centra attracti (1860) |
| Doctoral advisor | Karl Weierstrass Ernst Kummer |
| Doctoral students | Karl Bopp Jakob Horn Edmund Husserl Gyula Kőnig Martin Krause Georg Alexander Pick Alfred Pringsheim Mór Réthy Max Wolf |
In 2018, a biography about Helmholtz was written by science historian David Cahan.[2]
Biography
Königsberger was born in Posen (now Poznań, Poland), the son of a successful merchant. He studied at the University of Berlin with Karl Weierstrass, where he taught mathematics and physics (1860–64). He taught at the University of Greifswald (assistant professor, 1864–66; professor, 1866–69), the University of Heidelberg (1869–75), the Technische Universität Dresden (1875-77), and the University of Vienna (1877–84) before returning to Heidelberg in 1884, where remained until his retirement in 1914.[3]
In 1904 he was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in Heidelberg.[4] In 1919 he published his autobiography, Mein Leben ('My Life'). The biography of Helmholtz was published in 1902 and 1903. He also wrote a biography of C. G. J. Jacobi.[3]
Königsberger's own research was primarily on elliptic functions and differential equations. He worked closely with Lazarus Fuchs, a childhood friend.[3]
Selected publications
- Vorlesungen über die Theorie der elliptischen Functionen, nebst einer Einleitung in die allgemeine Functionenlehre
- Vorlesungen über die Theorie der hyperelliptischen Integrale, Teubner 1878, Project Gutenberg
- Allgemeine Üntersuchungen aus der Theorie der Differentialgleichungen
- Lehrbuch der Theorie der Differentialgleichungen mit einer unabhängigen Variabeln
- Zur Geschichte der Theorie der elliptischen Transcendenten in den Jahren 1826–29, Teubner 1879, Project Gutenberg
- Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, Teubner 1904.
- "Gedächtnisrede auf C. G. J. Jacobi von L. Koenigsberger". Verhandlungen des dritten Mathematiker-Kongresses in Heidelberg von 8. bis 13. August 1904. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. 1905. pp. 57–85.
- Mein Leben, Heidelberg 1919. (Erw. Ausgabe. Univ. Heidelberg 2015.)
Notes
- Königsberger, Leo. Hermann von Helmholtz.
- Cahan, David (2018). Helmholtz. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226549163.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-226-48114-2.
- Rines 1920.
- "Gedächtnisrede auf C. G. J. Jacobi by L. Königsberger". Verhandlungen des dritten Mathematiker-Kongresses in Heidelberg von 8. bis 13. August 1904. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. 1905. pp. 57–85.
References
- Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). . Encyclopedia Americana.
External links
Media related to Leo Koenigsberger at Wikimedia Commons- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Leo Königsberger", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
- Leo Königsberger at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- Mathematical publications from the University of Heidelberg.
- Extended autobiography (in German) from the University of Heidelberg.
- Works by Leo Koenigsberger at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Leo Königsberger at Internet Archive