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
O ...
. His mathematical contributions are connected chiefly with the theory of functions, which today is called
complex analysis.
[
]
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 metropolita ...
, 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. 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 PhD 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 con ...
at the university the same year. He was also curator (chairman) of the Stockholms nation
Stockholms nation is a student society and one of thirteen nations at Uppsala University. The nation has its origins in the mid-17th century and regards 1649 as its official date of foundation, although this is uncertain. A document in the archi ...
(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. S ...
, 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 or ...
and Berlin, studying under Weierstrass
Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (german: link=no, Weierstraß ; 31 October 1815 – 19 February 1897) was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics ...
in the latter place. During this period he edited a weekly newspaper, '' Ny Illustrerad Tidning'', which was based in Stockholm. He then took up a position as professor of mathematics (as successor to Lorenz Lindelöf) 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, soci ...
); 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 Suome ...
'' (1878, later honorary member), the '' Royal Swedish Society of Sciences'' 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 London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
(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 the ...
'' in 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. S ...
. 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 hon ...
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 countries, ...
and was instrumental in making Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (russian: link=no, Софья Васильевна Ковалевская), born Korvin-Krukovskaya ( – 10 February 1891), was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differen ...
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 in 1903, he was responsible for inducing the committee to award the prize for Physics jointly to Marie
Marie may refer to:
People Name
* Marie (given name)
* Marie (Japanese given name)
* Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973
* Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in ...
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 Becquer ...
, instead of just Pierre.
Mittag-Leffler founded the mathematical journal '' Acta Mathematica'' (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
Djursholm () is one of four suburban districts in, and the seat of Danderyd Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. Djursholm is included in the multi-municipal Stockholm urban area. Djursholm is divided into a number of different areas: 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 Swedi ...
''.
See also
* Mittag-Leffler distribution
The Mittag-Leffler distributions are two families of probability distributions on the half-line ,\infty). They are parametrized by a real \alpha \in (0, 1/math> or \alpha \in , 1/math>. Both are defined with the Mittag-Leffler function, named afte ...
* Mittag-Leffler function
In mathematics, the Mittag-Leffler function E_ is a special function, a complex function which depends on two complex parameters \alpha and \beta. It may be defined by the following series when the real part of \alpha is strictly positive:
:E_ ...
* Mittag-Leffler polynomials
* Mittag-Leffler star
* Mittag-Leffler summation In mathematics, Mittag-Leffler summation is any of several variations of the Borel summation method for summing possibly divergent formal power series, introduced by
Definition
Let
:y(z) = \sum_^\infty y_kz^k
be a formal power series in ''z''.
...
* Mittag-Leffler theorem In complex analysis, Mittag-Leffler's theorem concerns the existence of meromorphic functions with prescribed poles. Conversely, it can be used to express any meromorphic function as a sum of partial fractions. It is sister to the Weierstrass facto ...
* Mittag-Leffler condition of an inverse limit
* 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 Swedi ...
* Mittag-Lefflerbreen (glacier)
Notes
External links
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{{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