Friedrich Ernst Peter Hirzebruch

ForMemRS Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

(17 October 1927 – 27 May 2012) was a German mathematician, working in the fields of

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 ...

complex manifold In differential geometry and complex geometry, a complex manifold is a manifold with an atlas of charts to the open unit disc in \mathbb^n, such that the transition maps are holomorphic. The term complex manifold is variously used to mean a ...

s and

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

, and a leading figure in his generation. He has been described as "the most important mathematician in Germany of the postwar period."

Education

Hirzebruch was born in

Hamm Hamm (, Latin: ''Hammona'') is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of 2016 its population was 179,397. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway. Hamm railwa ...

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

in 1927. His father of the same name was a maths teacher. Hirzebruch studied at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

from 1945–1950, with one year at ETH Zürich.

Career

Hirzebruch then held a position at

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 116,062 inha ...

, followed by the years 1952–54 at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...

. After one year at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

1955–56, he was made a professor at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

, where he remained, becoming director of the '' Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik'' in 1981. More than 300 people gathered in celebration of his 80th birthday in Bonn in 2007. The

Hirzebruch–Riemann–Roch theorem In mathematics, the Hirzebruch–Riemann–Roch theorem, named after Friedrich Hirzebruch, Bernhard Riemann, and Gustav Roch, is Hirzebruch's 1954 result generalizing the classical Riemann–Roch theorem on Riemann surfaces to all complex algebra ...

(1954) for complex manifolds was a major advance and quickly became part of the mainstream developments around the classical

Riemann–Roch theorem The Riemann–Roch theorem is an important theorem in mathematics, specifically in complex analysis and algebraic geometry, for the computation of the dimension of the space of meromorphic functions with prescribed zeros and allowed poles. It rel ...

; it was also a precursor of the

Atiyah–Singer index theorem In differential geometry, the Atiyah–Singer index theorem, proved by Michael Atiyah and Isadore Singer (1963), states that for an elliptic differential operator on a compact manifold, the analytical index (related to the dimension of the sp ...

and Grothendieck's powerful generalisation. Hirzebruch's book ''Neue topologische Methoden in der algebraischen Geometrie'' (1956) was a basic text for the 'new methods' of

sheaf theory In mathematics, a sheaf is a tool for systematically tracking data (such as sets, abelian groups, rings) attached to the open sets of a topological space and defined locally with regard to them. For example, for each open set, the data could ...

, in

complex algebraic geometry In mathematics, complex geometry is the study of geometric structures and constructions arising out of, or described by, the complex numbers. In particular, complex geometry is concerned with the study of spaces such as complex manifolds and c ...

. He went on to write the foundational papers on topological K-theory with Michael Atiyah, and collaborated with

Armand Borel Armand Borel (21 May 1923 – 11 August 2003) was a Swiss mathematician, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and was a permanent professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, United States from 1957 to 1993. He worked in ...

on the theory of characteristic classes. In his later work he provided a detailed theory of Hilbert modular surfaces, with Don Zagier. He even found connections between the

Dedekind sum In mathematics, Dedekind sums are certain sums of products of a sawtooth function, and are given by a function ''D'' of three integer variables. Dedekind introduced them to express the functional equation of the Dedekind eta function. They ha ...

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Ma ...

and

differential topology In mathematics, differential topology is the field dealing with the topological properties and smooth properties of smooth manifolds. In this sense differential topology is distinct from the closely related field of differential geometry, which ...

, one of the many discoveries found between these different fields. His work influenced a generation of prominent mathematicians like Kunihiko Kodaira, John Milnor, Borel, Atiyah, Raoul Bott and

Jean-Pierre Serre Jean-Pierre Serre (; born 15 September 1926) is a French mathematician who has made contributions to algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, and algebraic number theory. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954, the Wolf Prize in 2000 and the ina ...

. In March 1945, Hirzebruch became a soldier, and in April, in the last weeks of Hitler's rule, he was taken prisoner by the British forces then invading Germany from the west. When a British soldier found that he was studying mathematics, he drove him home and released him, and told him to continue studying. Hirzebruch is famous for organizing the

Mathematische Arbeitstagung The Mathematische Arbeitstagung taking place annually in Bonn since 1957, and founded by Friedrich Hirzebruch, was an international meeting of mathematicians intended to act in clearing-house fashion, by disseminating current research ideas; and, at ...

("working meetings" in German) in

Bonn University The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

, beginning from 1957, and the first speakers include Atiyah,

Jacques Tits Jacques Tits () (12 August 1930 – 5 December 2021) was a Belgian-born French mathematician who worked on group theory and incidence geometry. He introduced Tits buildings, the Tits alternative, the Tits group, and the Tits metric. Life an ...

, Alexander Grothendieck, Hans Grauert,

Nicolaas Kuiper Nicolaas Hendrik Kuiper (; 28 June 1920 – 12 December 1994) was a Dutch mathematician, known for Kuiper's test and proving Kuiper's theorem. He also contributed to the Nash embedding theorem. Kuiper studied at University of Leiden in 1937- ...

, and Hirzebruch himself. It allowed international cooperation among the mathematical world for the last 60 years and was a major source of developments in

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces, can all be seen ...

as well as

mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The '' Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developm ...

in a few decades' time. He also established the

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics The Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (german: Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik, MPIM) is a prestigious research institute located in Bonn, Germany. It is named in honor of the German physicist Max Planck and forms part of the Max Planck ...

at Bonn in 1980. The institute became the place for the Arbeitstagung and Hirzebruch was its director until 1995. The second Arbeitstagung began in 1993 and continues to this day. From 1970 to 1971 he was the

Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics The Donegall Lecturership at Trinity College Dublin, is one of two endowed mathematics positions at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the other being the Erasmus Smith's Chair of Mathematics. The Donegall (sometimes spelt Donegal) Lectureship was en ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. According to the

Mathematics Genealogy Project The Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians.. By 31 December 2021, it contained information on 274,575 mathematical scientists who contributed to research-level mathematics. For a ty ...

, Hirzebruch has supervised the doctoral studies of 52 mathematicians. Some of them include

Egbert Brieskorn Egbert Valentin Brieskorn (7 July 1936, in Rostock – 11 July 2013, in Bonn) was a German mathematician who introduced Brieskorn spheres and the Brieskorn–Grothendieck resolution. Education Brieskorn was born in 1936 as the son of a mill cons ...

Matthias Kreck Matthias Kreck (born 22 July 1947, in Dillenburg) is a German mathematician who works in the areas of Algebraic Topology and Differential topology. From 1994 to 2002 he was director of the Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics and from O ...

, Don Zagier,

Detlef Gromoll Detlef Gromoll (13 May 1938 – 31 May 2008) was a mathematician who worked in Differential geometry. Biography Gromoll was born in Berlin in 1938, and was a classically trained violinist. After living and attending school in Rosdorf and gra ...

, Klaus Jänich, Lothar Göttsche, Dietmar Arlt,

Winfried Scharlau Winfried Scharlau (12 August 1940, in Berlin – 26 November 2020) was a German mathematician. Biography Scharlau received his doctorate in 1967 from the University of Bonn. His doctoral thesis ''Quadratische Formen und Galois-Cohomologie'' (Qua ...

, Walter Neumann, Wolfgang Meyer, Kang Zuo, Hans Scheerer, Erich Ossa, Klaus Lamotke, Eduardo Mendoza, Dimitrios Dais and Friedhelm Waldhausen. Hirzebruch died at the age of 84 on 27 May 2012.

Honours and awards

Amongst many other honours, Hirzebruch was awarded the

Wolf Prize in Mathematics The Wolf Prize in Mathematics is awarded almost annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics and Arts ...

in 1988 and a

Lobachevsky Medal The Lobachevsky Prize, awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Lobachevsky Medal, awarded by the Kazan State University, are mathematical awards in honor of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky. History The Lobachevsky Prize was established ...

in 1989. The government of Japan awarded him the

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest tw ...

in 1996 and the Seki-Takakazu prize of the Mathematical Society of Japan (MSJ) in 1997.L'Harmattan web site (in French)
Order with gold and silver rays Hirzebruch won an

Einstein Medal The Albert Einstein Medal is an award presented by the Albert Einstein Society in Bern. First given in 1979, the award is presented to people for "scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein" each year. Recipients S ...

of the Albert Einstein society in Bern in 1999, and received the Cantor medal in 2004. Hirzebruch was a foreign member of numerous academies and societies, including the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the N ...

, the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

, 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 ...

and the

French Academy of 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 1980–81 he delivered the first Sackler Distinguished Lecture in Israel. He was also a member of academies of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Finland, Hungary, Netherlands,

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 ...

, Austria, Ireland as well as the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

and the European Academy of Arts and Sciences. Hirzebruch was the president 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 ...

in 1962 and 1990, first after the foundation of a separate Eastern German mathematical due to the German division, and then again after the collapse of the wall which led to the unification of the East and West German Mathematical societies. He was also the first President of the

European Mathematical Society The European Mathematical Society (EMS) is a European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. Its members are different mathematical societies in Europe, academic institutions and individual mathematicians. The current ...

from 1990 to 1994. In this way, he rebuilt the mathematical life in both Germany and Europe after the war.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirzebruch, Friedrich 1927 births 2012 deaths Albert Einstein Medal recipients Algebraic geometers Foreign Members of the Royal Society Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Members of the French Academy of Sciences Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Donegall Lecturers of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences People from Hamm People from the Province of Westphalia Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) University of Münster alumni University of Erlangen-Nuremberg faculty University of Bonn faculty Wolf Prize in Mathematics laureates German Army personnel of World War II Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin 20th-century German mathematicians 21st-century German mathematicians German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom Presidents of the European Mathematical Society Max Planck Institute directors