Stefan Marian Kaczmarz (March 20, 1895 in
Sambor,
Galicia,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
– 1939) was a Polish
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 ...
.
His
Kaczmarz method
The Kaczmarz method or Kaczmarz's algorithm is an iterative algorithm for solving linear equation systems A x = b . It was first discovered by the Polish mathematician Stefan Kaczmarz, and was rediscovered in the field of image reconstruction from ...
provided the basis for many modern imaging technologies, including the
CAT scan.
[.]
Kaczmarz was a professor of mathematics in the faculty of
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...
of
Jan Kazimierz University of Lwów from 1919 to 1939, where he collaborated with
Stefan Banach
Stefan Banach ( ; 30 March 1892 – 31 August 1945) was a Polish mathematician who is generally considered one of the 20th century's most important and influential mathematicians. He was the founder of modern functional analysis, and an original ...
.
The circumstances of Kaczmarz's death are unclear. In early September 1939, after
World War II broke out, he was called up for Polish military service as a reserve lieutenant. He sent a letter to his wife on 4 September and was not heard from afterwards. Theories for his death include the possibility that he died soon after near
Nisko
Nisko is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland on the San River, with a population of 15,534 inhabitants as of 2 June 2009. Together with neighbouring city of Stalowa Wola, Nisko creates a small agglomeration. Nisko has been ...
(the source of his last letter to his wife) in a German bombing raid on a train he was traveling in, that he died later that month in combat against the Germans near
Umiastów
Umiastów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ożarów Mazowiecki, within Warsaw West County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Ożarów Mazowiecki and west of Warsaw
War ...
, or that he was murdered by the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
in April or May 1940 as part of the
Katyń massacre
The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
.
References
External links
Biography of Stefan Kaczmarz (in Polish)
1895 births
1939 deaths
Lwów School of Mathematics
Polish military personnel killed in World War II
{{Poland-mathematician-stub