Leon Lichtenstein (16 May 1878 – 21 August 1933) was a Polish-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 ...

, who made contributions to the areas of differential equations,

conformal mapping In mathematics, a conformal map is a function that locally preserves angles, but not necessarily lengths. More formally, let U and V be open subsets of \mathbb^n. A function f:U\to V is called conformal (or angle-preserving) at a point u_0\in ...

, and potential theory. He was also interested in theoretical physics, publishing research in hydrodynamics and

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

Life and work

Leon Lichtenstein was born on 16 May 1878 to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the 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 the Great Northern War. ...

. His cousin,

Leo Wiener Leo Wiener (1862–1939) was an American historian, linguist, author and translator. Biography Wiener was born in Białystok (then in the Russian Empire), of Lithuanian Jewish origin. His father was Zalmen (Solomon) Wiener, and his mother w ...

, was the father of MIT mathematician

Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...

. He studied in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, earning both a doctorate in

mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

and

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at the

Technische Hochschule 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 a doctorate in mathematics at the Friedrich Wilhelm University with a thesis on

differential equations In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...

written under the supervision of

Hermann Schwarz Karl Hermann Amandus Schwarz (; 25 January 1843 – 30 November 1921) was a German mathematician, known for his work in complex analysis. Life Schwarz was born in Hermsdorf, Silesia (now Jerzmanowa, Poland). In 1868 he married Marie Kummer, ...

and

Friedrich Schottky Friedrich Hermann Schottky (24 July 1851 – 12 August 1935) was a German mathematician who worked on elliptic, abelian, and theta functions and introduced Schottky groups and Schottky's theorem. He was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, ...

. From 1902 he worked as an electrical engineer for

Siemens & Halske Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens. It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geo ...

; then, from 1910, he turned to the academic world by becoming privatdozent at the Berlin Technische Hochschule. Lichtenstein was one of the founders, in 1918, and the first editor of the journal ''

Mathematische Zeitschrift ''Mathematische Zeitschrift'' (German for ''Mathematical Journal'') is a mathematical journal for pure and applied mathematics published by Springer Verlag. It was founded in 1918 and edited by Leon Lichtenstein together with Konrad Knopp, Erhard ...

''. In 1920 he moved to a mathematics chair at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

and in 1922 he joined the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

where he would spend the rest of his career. At the University of Leipzig, he founded a mathematical school and his students, including

Ernst Hölder Ernst Otto Hölder (2 April 1901, Leipzig – 30 June 1990, Mainz) was a German mathematician who made contributions to partial differential equations and continuum mechanics. Education and career Hölder was born in Leipzig and studied at the ...

Erich Kähler Erich Kähler (; 16 January 1906 – 31 May 2000) was a German mathematician with wide-ranging interests in geometry and mathematical physics, who laid important mathematical groundwork for algebraic geometry and for string theory. Education an ...

Aurel Wintner Aurel Friedrich Wintner (8 April 1903 – 15 January 1958) was a mathematician noted for his research in mathematical analysis, number theory, differential equations and probability theory. He was one of the founders of probabilistic number theor ...

, Hermann Boerner and Karl Maruhn, continuing his research in mathematics and theoretical physics. In 1933, as the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

came to power in Germany, Lichtenstein abandoned his position at the university and left to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, as he would have been dismissed anyway for being Jewish. Shortly after, on 21 August 1933, he died of heart and kidney problems in

Zakopane Zakopane ( Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been par ...

, in Poland.

Bibliography

*''Beiträge zur Theorie der Kabel- Untersuchungen zu den Kapazitätsverhältnissen von verseilten und konzentrischen Mehrfachkabeln.'' Oldenbourg, München 1908. *''Grundlagen der Hydromechanik.'' Springer, Berlin 1929. Reprint 1968. *''Gleichgewichtsfiguren rotierender Flüssigkeiten.'' Springer, Berlin 1933. *''Vorlesungen über einige Klassen nichtlinearer Integralgleichungen und Integro-Differentialgleichungen nebst Anwendungen.'' Springer, Berlin 1931. *''Astronomie und Mathematik in ihrer Wechselwirkung. Mathematische Probleme in der Theorie der Figur der Himmelskörper.'' 1922, Reprint: VDM, Saarbrücken 2007.

References

Sources

Jagdish Mehra Jagdish Mehra (April 8, 1931 – September 14, 2008) was an Indian-American historian of science. Academic career Mehra was educated at Allahabad University, the Max Planck Institut für Physik and the University of California at Los Angeles a ...

Helmut Rechenberg Helmut Rechenberg (born November 6, 1937, in Berlin; died November 10, 2016, in Munich) was a German physicist and science historian. Rechenberg studied mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Munich and graduated in 1964. At Mun ...

, ''The historical development of quantum theory'', Springer, 2000, p. 418 * Sanford L. Segal, ''Mathematicians under the Nazis'', Princeton University Press, 2003, p. 44

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lichtenstein, Leon 1878 births 1933 deaths Polish mathematicians Academic staff of the University of Münster Academic journal editors Scientists from Warsaw Emigrants from Congress Poland to Germany

Life and work

Bibliography

See also

References

Sources

External links