Jacob Levitzki, also known as Yaakov Levitsky ( he, יעקב לויצקי) (17 August 1904 - 25 February 1956) was an Israeli

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

Biography

Levitzki was born in 1904 in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

and emigrated to then Ottoman-ruled

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

in 1912. After completing his studies at the Herzliya Gymnasia, he travelled to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and, in 1929, obtained a doctorate in mathematics from the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded i ...

under the supervision of

Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy Noether Emmy is the ''Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noeth ...

. In 1931, after two years at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, in

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Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, Levitzki returned to Palestine to join the faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Awards

Levitzki together with Shimshon Amitsur, who had been one of his students at the Hebrew University, were each awarded the Israel Prize in

exact science The exact sciences, sometimes called the exact mathematical sciences, are those sciences "which admit of absolute precision in their results"; especially the mathematical sciences. Examples of the exact sciences are mathematics, optics, astron ...

s in 1953, the inaugural year of the prize, for their work on the laws of noncommutative rings. Levitzki's son Alexander Levitzki, a recipient of the Israel Prize in 1990, in

life science Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

s, established the

Levitzki Prize The Israel Mathematical Union (IMU) ( he, הַאִיגּוּד הַיִשְׂרְאֵלִי לְמָתֶמָטִיקָה) is an association of professional mathematicians in Israel. It is a member of the European Mathematical Society and the In ...

in the name of his parents, Jacob and Charlotte, for Israeli research in the field of algebra.

References

1904 births 1956 deaths Ukrainian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Jews in Ottoman Palestine Jews in Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Israeli Jews 20th-century Israeli mathematicians Linear algebraists Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium alumni University of Göttingen alumni Yale University faculty Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Israel Prize in exact science recipients Israel Prize in exact science recipients who were mathematicians {{asia-mathematician-stub

Biography

Awards

See also

References