thumd, 250px Karl Heun (; 3 April 1859,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

– 10 January 1929,

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

) was a German

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who introduced Heun's equation,

Heun function In mathematics, the local Heun function H \ell (a,q;\alpha ,\beta, \gamma, \delta ; z) is the solution of Heun's differential equation that is holomorphic and 1 at the singular point ''z'' = 0. The local Heun function is called a Heun ...

s, and Heun's method. Karl Heun studied mathematics and philosophy in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

(and briefly in Halle). In 1881, with the dissertation ''Die Kugelfunktionen und Laméschen Funktionen als Determinanten'' he received his doctorate under Schering at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. He then worked as a teacher at an agricultural college in Wehlau, until in 1883 he emigrated to England where he taught until 1885 in

Uppingham Uppingham is a market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Rutland, England, off the A47 between Leicester and Peterborough, south of Oakham. It had a population of 4,745 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 4,853 in 2019. ...

. He completed his studies in London and received his Habilitierung qualification in June 1886 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

with the thesis ''Über lineare Differentialgleichungen zweiter Ordnung, deren Lösungen durch den Kettenbruchalgorithmus verknüpft sind''. From 1886 to 1889, he taught at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, but because of financial circumstances from 1890 to 1902 he had to work as a teacher in Berlin. In 1900, Karl Heun received the title of Professor and then in 1902 he obtained the professorial chair of theoretical mechanics at the

Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public university, public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Ka ...

, where he worked until he retired with a pension in 1922.

References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heun, Karl 19th-century German mathematicians 20th-century German mathematicians 1859 births 1929 deaths