Leopold Vietoris (; ; 4 June 1891 – 9 April 2002) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

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 ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

veteran and

supercentenarian A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is a person who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of major age-related diseases u ...

. He was born in Radkersburg and died in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...

. He was known for his contributions to

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...

—notably the

Mayer–Vietoris sequence In mathematics, particularly algebraic topology and homology theory, the Mayer–Vietoris sequence is an algebraic tool to help compute algebraic invariants of topological spaces, known as their homology and cohomology groups. The result is due ...

—and other fields of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, his interest in mathematical history and for being a keen alpinist.

Biography

Vietoris studied mathematics and geometry at the Vienna University of Technology. He was drafted in 1914 in

and was wounded in September that same year. On 4 November 1918, one week before the Armistice of Villa Giusti, he became an Italian

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...

. After returning to Austria, he attended the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...

, where he earned his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

in 1920, with a thesis written under the supervision of

Gustav von Escherich Gustav Ritter von Escherich (1 June 1849 – 28 January 1935) was an Austrian mathematician. Biography Born in Mantua, he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna. From 1876 to 1879 he was professor at the University of Graz. ...

and Wilhelm Wirtinger. In autumn 1928 he married his first wife Klara Riccabona, who later died while giving birth to their sixth daughter. In 1936 he married Klara's sister, Maria Riccabona. Vietoris was survived by his six daughters, 17 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren. He lends his name to a few mathematical concepts: *Vietoris topology (see

topological space In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called poin ...

) *Vietoris homology (see

homology theory In mathematics, homology is a general way of associating a sequence of algebraic objects, such as abelian groups or modules, with other mathematical objects such as topological spaces. Homology groups were originally defined in algebraic topolog ...

) *

Vietoris–Begle mapping theorem The Vietoris–Begle mapping theorem is a result in the mathematical field of algebraic topology. It is named for Leopold Vietoris and Edward G. Begle. The statement of the theorem, below, is as formulated by Stephen Smale. Theorem Let X and Y ...

Vietoris–Rips complex In topology, the Vietoris–Rips complex, also called the Vietoris complex or Rips complex, is a way of forming a topological space from distances in a set of points. It is an abstract simplicial complex that can be defined from any metric space ...

Vietoris remained scientifically active in his later years, even writing one paper on trigonometric sums at the age of 103. Vietoris lived to be 110 years and 309 days old, and became the oldest verified Austrian man ever.

Decorations and awards

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian ...

(1973) *

Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria The Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (german: Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria. It is divided into 15 classes and is the highest award in the A ...

(1981) * Honorary member of the

German Mathematical Society The German Mathematical Society (german: Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, DMV) is the main professional society of German mathematicians and represents German mathematics within the European Mathematical Society (EMS) and the International Math ...

(1992)

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vietoris, Leopold 1891 births 2002 deaths People from Bad Radkersburg 20th-century Austrian mathematicians Topologists Men supercentenarians Austrian centenarians Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Austrian prisoners of war World War I prisoners of war held by Italy Austro-Hungarian mathematicians