Bohumil Bydžovský (14 March 1880, in

Duchcov Duchcov (; ) is a town in Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,700 inhabitants. Duchcov is known for the Duchcov Castle. The historic town centre with the castle complex is well preserved and is pro ...

– 6 May 1969, in

Jindřichův Hradec Jindřichův Hradec (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 21,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument reservations, urb ...

) was a Czech mathematician, specializing in algebraic geometry and algebra.

Education and career

Bydzovsky in 1898 completed his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

at the Academic Gymnasium in Prague and then studied mathematics (in particular, geometry taught by Eduard Weyr) and physics at the

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

. There Bydzovsky received his Ph.D. (promotion) in 1903 with thesis supervised by

Karel Petr Karel Petr (; 14 June 1868, Zbyslav, Austria-Hungary – 14 February 1950, Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a mathematician from Bohemia in Austria-Hungary and later Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slov ...

. Bydzovksy became a teacher at secondary schools, including the ''reálce'' in Prague-Karlín from 1907 to 1910 (with the title of Professor). In 1909 he received his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in mathematics, then lectured at the Polytechnic in Prague, and then in 1911 received his

in engineering. He became in 1917 professor extraordinarius and in 1920 professor ordinarius at the Charles University in Prague. He was in 1930–1931 dean of the Faculty of Sciences and in 1946 rector of the Charles University in Prague. In 1949 he became the chair of the Czechoslovak National Research Council.

Contributions

Bydzovsky wrote undergraduate textbooks in analytic geometry, linear algebra, and algebraic geometry. He did research on infinite groups, the theory of matrices and determinants, and geometric configurations. He also published papers on the history of geometry and

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical know ...

Recognition

He became in 1919 a corresponding member and in 1929 a full member of the

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, , abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back to the Royal Bohemian Society of Sc ...

and Arts and in 1952 a full member of the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. He was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in 1920 in Strasbourg,''Sur les transformations quadratiques reproduisant une quartique elliptique plane''
par B. Bydzovsky, Proceedings of the ICM, 1920 in 1924 in Toronto, in 1928 in Bologna, and in 1936 in Oslo.

Personal

He married and was the father of two sons.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bydzovsky, Bohumil 20th-century Czech mathematicians Charles University alumni Rectors of Charles University Czech mathematicians 1880 births 1969 deaths People from Duchcov Mathematicians from Austria-Hungary Czechoslovak mathematicians