Stefan Bergman (5 May 1895 – 6 June 1977) was a

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

-born American mathematician whose primary work was in

complex analysis Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates Function (mathematics), functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathemati ...

. His name is also written Bergmann; he dropped the second "n" when he came to the U. S. He is best known for the kernel function he discovered while at University of Berlin in 1922. This function is known today as the Bergman kernel. Bergman taught for many years at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and served as an advisor to several students.

Biography

Born in

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admin ...

, Russian Empire, to a German Jewish family, Bergman received his Ph.D. at University of Berlin in 1921 for a dissertation on

Fourier analysis In mathematics, Fourier analysis () is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by sums of simpler trigonometric functions. Fourier analysis grew from the study of Fourier series, and is named after Josep ...

. His advisor, Richard von Mises, had a strong influence on him, lasting for the rest of his career.. In 1933, Bergman was forced to leave his post at the Berlin University because he was a Jew. He fled first to Russia, where he stayed until 1939, and then to Paris. In 1939, he emigrated to the United States, where he would remain for the rest of life. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1951. He was a professor at Stanford University from 1952 until his retirement in 1972. He was an

invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...

in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and in 1962 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

(''On meromorphic functions of several complex variables''). He died in Palo Alto, California, aged 82.

The Bergman Prize

The

Stefan Bergman Prize The Stefan Bergman Prize is a mathematics award, funded by the estate of the widow of mathematician Stefan Bergman and supported by the American Mathematical Society. The award is granted for mathematical research in: "1) the theory of the kernel f ...

in mathematics was initiated by Bergman's wife in her will, in memory of her husband's work. The American Mathematical Society supports the prize and selects the committee of judges.Other Prizes and Awards Supported by the AMS
/ref> The prize is awarded for: # the theory of the kernel function and its applications in real and complex analysis; or # function-theoretic methods in the theory of

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

s of elliptic type with a special attention to Bergman's and related operator methods.

Selected publications

*. *. *. * * *. The original edition was published in 1941 by Interscience Publishers. *. *''The Kernel Function and Conformal Mapping'', American Mathematical Society 1950, 2nd edn. 1970 *with

Menahem Max Schiffer Menahem Max Schiffer (24 September 1911, Berlin – 11 November 1997)) was a German-born American mathematician who worked in complex analysis, partial differential equations, and mathematical physics. Biography Schiffer studied physics from 1 ...

: ''Kernel Functions and elliptic differential equations in mathematical physics'', Academic Press 1953 *with John G. Herriot
''Application of the method of the kernel function for solving boundary value problems'', Numerische Mathematik 3, 1961
*''Integral operators in the theory of linear partial differential equations'', Springer 1961, 2nd edn. 1969

References

External links

Author profile
in the database zbMATH {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergman, Stefan 1895 births 1977 deaths American people of Polish-Jewish descent 20th-century Polish mathematicians Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany German emigrants to the United States Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Jewish American scientists Complex analysts Mathematical analysts People from Częstochowa PDE theorists Stanford University Department of Mathematics faculty People from Palo Alto, California Brown University faculty Yeshiva University faculty Academic staff of Tomsk State University

Biography

The Bergman Prize

Selected publications

See also

References

External links