Helmut V. Koch (born 5 October 1932) is a German mathematician specializing in number theory.

Education and career

Koch was born in Potsdam. Koch studied from 1952 to 1957 at the

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. From 1957 to 1959, he worked in the semiconductor plant at Teltow. From 1959, he was a member of the Institute for Mathematics of the Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR, where he received in 1964 his promotion (Ph.D.) and in 1965 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 ...

. He studied under Hans Reichardt and

Igor Shafarevich Igor Rostislavovich Shafarevich (russian: И́горь Ростисла́вович Шафаре́вич; 3 June 1923 – 19 February 2017) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. ...

(1960/61 in Moscow). The famous "Number Theory" textbook by Shafarevich and Borevich was translated by Koch from Russian into German. Koch was from 1969 to 1991 the head of the research group at the Institute for Mathematics and from 1992 to 1996, the head of a working group at the Humboldt University, where he became a full professor in 1992. He was on research sabbaticals in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...

and at the University of Paris, University of Montreal, University of Alberta, University of Cambridge, ETH Zürich, the Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center in Warsaw, and the Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in Bonn. Koch's research deals with, among other topics, the Galois theory of

algebraic number field In mathematics, an algebraic number field (or simply number field) is an extension field K of the field of rational numbers such that the field extension K / \mathbb has finite degree (and hence is an algebraic field extension). Thus K is a f ...

s, p-extensions of number fields, cubic number fields, and class field theory. He was a member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. He is a full member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academia Europaea, and the

Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the States of Germany, German ...

. He is a corresponding member of the

Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: ''Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften''), established in 1909 in Heidelberg, Germany, is an assembly of scholars and scientists in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The Academ ...

.Cf. Gabriele Dörflinger
Mathematik in der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften
2014, p. 32. In 1986 he was an Invited Speaker at the ICM in 1986 in Berkeley, California. In 1993 he became a member of the editorial staff of the '' Mathematische Nachrichten''.

Selected publications

* with Herbert Pieper: ''Zahlentheorie – ausgewählte Methoden und Ergebnisse.'' Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1976 (Einführung) * ''Zahlentheorie – algebraische Zahlen und Funktionen.'' Vieweg 1997 * ''Algebraic Number Theory.'' 2nd edition, Springer 1997 (in Encyclopedia of mathematical sciences, eds. Parshin, Shafarevich) * ''Einführung in die Mathematik – Hintergründe der Schulmathematik.'' Springer, 2nd edition 2004, * ''Einführung in die klassische Mathematik, vol. 1 Vom quadratischen Reziprozitätsgesetz zum Uniformisierungssatz.'' Springer 1986, English: Introduction to classical mathematics – from the quadratic reciprocity law to the uniformization theorem, Kluwer 1991 * ''Galois theory of p-extensions.'' Springer 2002 (older edition: Die Galoissche Theorie der p-Erweiterungen, Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften 1970) * ''Über Galoissche Gruppen von p-adischen Zahlkörpern'', Akademie Verlag 1964

Sources

* Gottwald, Ilgauds, Schlote: ''Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker'', Leipzig 1990 *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Helmut Members of Academia Europaea Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 20th-century German mathematicians 21st-century German mathematicians Humboldt University of Berlin alumni 1932 births Living people Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin