Bohumil Bydžovský (14 March 1880, in

Duchcov Duchcov (; german: Dux) is a town in Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,600 inhabitants. Duchcov is known for the Duchcov Chateau, Duchcov Castle. The historic town centre with the castle complex i ...

– 6 May 1969, in

Jindřichův Hradec Jindřichův Hradec (; german: Neuhaus) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 21,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation. Administrative par ...

) was a Czech mathematician, specializing in algebraic geometry and algebra.

Education and career

Bydzovsky in 1898 completed his Abitur at the Academic Gymnasium in Prague and then studied mathematics (in particular, geometry taught by Eduard Weyr) and physics at the

Charles University in Prague Charles University ( cs, Univerzita Karlova, UK; la, Universitas Carolina; german: Karls-Universität), also known as Charles University in Prague or historically as the University of Prague ( la, Universitas Pragensis, links=no), is the oldest an ...

. There Bydzovsky received his Ph.D. (promotion) in 1903 with thesis supervised by

Karel Petr Karel Petr (; 14 June 1868, Zbyslav, Austria-Hungary – 14 February 1950, Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a Czech mathematician. He was one of the most renowned Czech mathematicians of the first half of the 20th century. Biography Petr is known f ...

. Bydzovksy became a teacher at secondary schools, including the ''reálce'' in Prague-Karlín from 1907 to 1910 (with the title of Professor). In 1909 he received his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in mathematics, then lectured at the Polytechnic in Prague, and then in 1911 received his

in engineering. He became in 1917 professor extraordinarius and in 1920 professor ordinarius at the Charles University in Prague. He was in 1930–1931 dean of the Faculty of Sciences and in 1946 rector of the Charles University in Prague. In 1949 he became the chair of the Czechoslovak National Research Council.

Contributions

Bydzovsky wrote undergraduate textbooks in analytic geometry, linear algebra, and algebraic geometry. He did research on infinite groups, the theory of matrices and determinants, and geometric configurations. He also published papers on the history of geometry and mathematics education.

Recognition

He became in 1919 a corresponding member and in 1929 a full member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts and in 1952 a full member of the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. He was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in 1920 in Strasbourg,''Sur les transformations quadratiques reproduisant une quartique elliptique plane''
par B. Bydzovsky, Proceedings of the ICM, 1920 in 1924 in Toronto, in 1928 in Bologna, and in 1936 in Oslo.

Personal

He married and was the father of two sons.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bydzovsky, Bohumil 20th-century Czech mathematicians Charles University alumni Rectors of Charles University Czech mathematicians 1880 births 1969 deaths People from Duchcov Austro-Hungarian mathematicians Czechoslovak mathematicians