Fritz Joachim Weyl
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Fritz Joachim Weyl (February 19, 1915 – July 20, 1977) was born in Zurich, Switzerland. Today Weyl is regarded as a renowned mathematician. During his lifetime he taught at many universities, significantly contributed to research in mathematics and came to be very well respected. One of the universities he taught at was the
George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
(GW or GWU), in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...


Early life

Fritz was the son of another famous mathematician named Hermann Weyl and writer and translator
Helene Weyl Friederike Bertha Helene Weyl (born 30 March 1893 in Ribnitz; died June 1948 in Princeton) was a German writer and translator. She was married to the mathematician Hermann Weyl. Life Weyl was born on 30 March 1893 in Ribnitz, Germany. She w ...
. Fritz received his
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree from Swarthmore College, which is located in
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, in 1935. Weyl then went on to obtain a
Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in 1937 from
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 ...
, in
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. Finally Weyl was awarded a PhD, also by
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 ...
in 1939 for his work in the field of mathematics. His PhD dissertation at Princeton was entitled "Analytic Curves" and is twenty-five pages in length.Weyl, F. "Analytic Curves." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1939
Salomon Bochner Salomon Bochner (20 August 1899 – 2 May 1982) was an Austrian mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis, probability theory and differential geometry. Life He was born into a Jewish family in Podgórze (near Kraków), then Aus ...
served as his dissertation advisor and oversaw his research in the area while Weyl was studying at Princeton. Bochner too is well known in the math world. He is a native of
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and received his PhD in 1921 from the
University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
. His dissertation advisor was
Erhard Schmidt Erhard Schmidt (13 January 1876 – 6 December 1959) was a Baltic German mathematician whose work significantly influenced the direction of mathematics in the twentieth century. Schmidt was born in Tartu (german: link=no, Dorpat), in the Govern ...
. While at Princeton, Bochner advised many students who went on to achieve much academic success in their own right.


Career

Professor Weyl taught at a number of different universities during his life. These include a stay at the
University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
, the
University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
,
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...
, and the
George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
. In addition to teaching, Weyl was employed as a research analyst by the U.S. government for a period of time. After his stay there he went on to serve as the Dean of Science and Mathematics at Hunter College in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. Weyl served as the President of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) 1960-1961.


Time at George Washington University

Weyl joined the department of mathematics at GW around 1946. The President of the University at the time was Cloyd Heck Marvin. During this time period, GW is described as having been particularly vibrant in student life. As of 1945, the university offered 387 courses to almost 13,000 wartime students. These programs were primarily conducted under a contract between GW and the U.S Office of Education for Engineering, Science and Management War Training. The establishment of this program was seen as necessary and was inherently due to the U.S.'s heavy involvement in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
at the time. Many American (and global) universities were affected by the war. GW was no exception but given GW's strategic location in metropolitan D.C., it would be appropriate to conclude that more emphasis was paid to developing programs here than in less vital locations in other parts of the country. An estimated 7,000 GW graduates served in the armed forces. The math department at GW has a long history and tradition. In 1935 the department of statistics was the first of its kind in a college of arts and sciences in the U.S. In 1946, during Professor Weyl's time here, a
theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...
conference was held at GW. It was put on in a joint effort by the university and the
Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...
. At the conference theoretical
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
s met with
biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...
s to conduct a study of living processes, Dr. Weyl was in attendance. The conference held in 1946 served as the postwar resumption of a conference series held annually which began in 1934. Sources state that these meetings were not standard academic gatherings, in the sense that a small number of active researchers gathered for a discussion of problems, and to pose questions to spark continued work and activity in the immediate years to come. Conversely standard conferences, the bulletin reported, would merely recycle results previously obtained. James Henry Taylor was a mathematics professor at GW from 1929 to 1958 and then professor emeritus until his death in 1972. During Dr. Weyl's time here, he and Dr. Taylor worked together in the GW math department. During 1946 the department is noted as having taught advanced analytics,
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 ...
, and
tensor In mathematics, a tensor is an algebraic object that describes a multilinear relationship between sets of algebraic objects related to a vector space. Tensors may map between different objects such as vectors, scalars, and even other tensor ...
analysis. Some time shortly after 1946 however the department developed thirty-four additional courses in everything from collegiate
algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...
to analytic geometry and plane
trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies ...
. Today the university awards a " grand math prize" in Taylor's honor. Another famous professor in the GW math department with Weyl in 1946 was Florence Marie Mears, who taught at GW from 1929 to 1955. The year of 1946 was particularly renowned in the GW mathematics department for having so many famous mathematicians there at once.


Other work

Both Fritz and his father Hermann published much work on mathematical research. Most of Hermann's published work is not in English however. In 1970s,
Constance Reid Constance Bowman Reid (January 3, 1918 – October 14, 2010) was the author of several biographies of mathematicians and popular books about mathematics. She received several awards for mathematical exposition. She was not a mathematician but ...
wrote books about David Hilbert and
Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of real ...
where Hermann Weyl is mentioned many times and his son once, on p. 381 in the volume about Courant. In 1949, Hermann published a book entitled Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science. This work was originally published by Princeton University Press. Fritz and Hermann published a book together called ''Meromorphic Functions and Analytic Curves''. This work is believed to be based on notes from a course given 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 ...
during the first term of 1942–1943. While Fritz was working for the U.S. government he complied what is known as ''Research in the service of national purpose; proceedings of the Office of Naval Research Vicennial Convocation'', in 1966. This work is available at the National Museum of American History located at the Smithsonian. Also many researchers have cited Weyl's work when conducting their own. For example his work is cited as a reference in the publication The Philosophical Review. When Dr. Fritz Weyl died on July 20, 1977 the mathematics community considered the loss to be devastating. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1977 the Board of Trustees for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) issued a memoriam. In part it read: "...in warm recognition of his enduring vision for both the beauties and the practicalities of applied mathematics...the members and officers of SIAM and SIMS offer their heartfelt tribute".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weyl, Fritz Joachim 20th-century Swiss mathematicians Presidents of Hunter College Presidents of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 1915 births 1977 deaths Swiss emigrants to the United States 20th-century American academics