Magnus Gustaf "Gösta" Mittag-Leffler (16 March 1846 – 7 July 1927) was a Swedish

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 mathematical contributions are connected chiefly with the theory of functions, which today is called

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 ...

Biography

Mittag-Leffler was born in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

, son of the school principal John Olof Leffler and Gustava Wilhelmina Mittag; he later added his mother's maiden name to his paternal surname. His sister was the writer

Anne Charlotte Leffler Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, duchess of Cajanello (1 October 184921 October 1892), was a Swedish author. Biography She was the daughter of the school principal John Olof Leffler and Gustava Wilhelmina Mittag. Her brother was noted mathematicia ...

. He matriculated at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

in 1865, completed his

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in 1872 and became

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

at the university the same year. He was also curator (chairman) of the Stockholms nation (1872–1873). He next traveled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

and

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 constitu ...

, studying under Weierstrass in the latter place. During this period he edited a weekly newspaper, ''

Ny Illustrerad Tidning ''Ny Illustrerad Tidning'' (Swedish: ''New Illustrated Newspaper'') was a weekly newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden, between 1865 and 1900. History and profile ''Ny Illustrerad Tidning'' was launched in Stockholm in 1865. The founder and e ...

'', which was based in Stockholm. He then took up a position as professor of mathematics (as successor to

Lorenz Lindelöf Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum". Given name People with the given name Lorenz include: * Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of the Belgian royal family by ...

) at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the R ...

from 1877 to 1881 and then as the first professor of mathematics at the University College of Stockholm (the later

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, ...

); he was president of the college from 1891 to 1892 and retired from his chair in 1911. Mittag-Leffler went into business and became a successful businessman in his own right, but an economic collapse in Europe wiped out his fortune in 1922. He was a member of the ''

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for prom ...

'' (1883), the ''

Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters is a Finnish academy for natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. It is known in Latin as Societas Scientiarum Fennica, in Swedish as Finska Vetenskaps-Societeten, and in Finnish as Suomen Ti ...

'' (1878, later honorary member), the ''

Royal Swedish Society of Sciences The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. ...

'' in Uppsala, the '' Royal Physiographic Society'' in Lund (1906) and about 30 foreign learned societies, including the ''

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

'' of

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(1896) and ''

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at ...

'' in

. He held

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

s from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and several other universities. Mittag-Leffler was a convinced advocate of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countri ...

and was instrumental in making Sofia Kovalevskaya a full professor of mathematics in Stockholm, as the first woman anywhere in the world to hold that position. As a member of the

Nobel Prize Committee A Nobel Committee is a working body responsible for most of the work involved in selecting Nobel Prize laureates. There are five Nobel Committees, one for each Nobel Prize. Four of these committees (for prizes in physics, chemistry, physio ...

in 1903, he was responsible for inducing the committee to award the prize for Physics jointly to Marie and

Pierre Curie Pierre Curie ( , ; 15 May 1859 – 19 April 1906) was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity. In 1903, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, and Henri Becq ...

, instead of just Pierre. Mittag-Leffler founded the mathematical journal ''

Acta Mathematica ''Acta Mathematica'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal covering research in all fields of mathematics. According to Cédric Villani, this journal is "considered by many to be the most prestigious of all mathematical research jou ...

'' (1882), with the help of King Oscar's sponsorship, and partly paid for with the fortune of his wife Signe Lindfors, who came from a very wealthy Finnish family. He collected a large mathematical library in his villa in the Stockholm suburb of Djursholm. The house and its contents were donated to the Academy of Sciences as the ''

Mittag-Leffler Institute The Mittag-Leffler Institute is a mathematical research institute located in Djursholm, a suburb of Stockholm. It invites scholars to participate in half-year programs in specialized mathematical subjects. The Institute is run by the Royal Sw ...

''.

Notes

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mittag-Leffler, Gosta 1846 births 1927 deaths 20th-century Swedish mathematicians Complex analysts Academic personnel of the University of Helsinki Uppsala University alumni Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 19th-century Swedish mathematicians Foreign Members of the Royal Society Swedish magazine founders Swedish newspaper editors

Biography

See also

Notes

External links