Helmar Gunter Frank (19 February 1933,

Waiblingen Waiblingen (; Swabian: ''Woeblinge'') is a town in the southwest of Germany, located in the center of the densely populated Stuttgart region, directly neighboring Stuttgart. It is the capital and largest city of the Rems-Murr district. , Waib ...

– 15 December 2013,

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

) was a German

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

pedagogist Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken a ...

. He was among the first scientists to apply mathematical methods in teaching and psychology. He established a method to measure

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be des ...

on an absolute and homogeneous scale rather than by comparison between individuals. Frank got his PhD from the University of Stuttgart in 1959, working on the principles of an informational

esthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

. From 1961 to 1963 he was a member of the research group on "learning automata" at the

University of Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

. In 1963 he was appointed professor for informational sciences (later cybernetics) at the ''Pädagogische Hochschule''

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

(being the youngest full professor in Germany, with an age of 30) and established the Institute of Cybernetics. In 1972 he became one of the founders of the

University of Paderborn Paderborn University (german: Universität Paderborn) is one of the fourteen public research universities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It was founded in 1972 and 20,308 students were enrolled at the university in the winter ...

where he continued his work on a cybernetic theory of psychology and pedagogy. In 1985 he founded, together with

Reinhard Selten Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten (; 5 October 1930 – 23 August 2016) was a German economist, who won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with John Harsanyi and John Nash). He is also well known for his work in boun ...

, Ivo Lapenna, Fabrizio Pennacchietti,

Humphrey Tonkin Humphrey R. Tonkin (born 2 December 1939) is professor of English, and served as the 4th president of the University of Hartford. He is also a dedicated Esperantist. Biography Born in Truro, UK, Tonkin is a dual citizen of the U.K. and the ...

, and others, the

Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj San Marino The International Academy of Sciences San Marino ( eo, Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj San Marino, AIS) was a scientific association. It was established in 1983 and had its first convention, SUS 1, around New Year 1984 in the City of San Marino ...

(AIS), an international academy of sciences. He was its president until December 2007. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was the initiator and scientific evaluator of an international teaching experiment on the propaedeutic value of Esperanto. In 1998 he was awarded the 1st class Bundesverdienstkreuz. Frank taught as a guest or honorary professor at the

Technische Universität Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

and the universities of

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of about 78,353, it is the fifth l ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, Rosario, and

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...

. He was the founder and long-time editor-in-chief of the scientific journal ''Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik und Geisteswissenschaft''. Frank's wife, Věra Barandovská-Frank, is a well-known Czech

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...

References

External links

University of Paderborn

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frank, Helmar 1933 births 2013 deaths 20th-century German mathematicians 21st-century German mathematicians German Esperantists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Academic staff of Paderborn University