Leopold Vietoris ( , , ; 4 June 1891 – 9 April 2002) was an Austrian

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 ...

, World War I veteran and

supercentenarian A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until short ...

. He was born in Radkersburg and died in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

. He was known for his contributions to

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

—notably the

Mayer–Vietoris sequence In mathematics, particularly algebraic topology and homology theory, the Mayer–Vietoris sequence is an algebraic tool to help compute algebraic invariants of topological spaces. The result is due to two Austrian mathematicians, Walther Mayer an ...

—and other fields of

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, his interest in mathematical history, and for being a keen alpinist.

Biography

Vietoris studied mathematics and geometry at the Vienna University of Technology. He was drafted in 1914 in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and was wounded in September that same year. On 4 November 1918, one week before the Armistice of Villa Giusti, he became an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. After returning to Austria, he attended the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, where he earned his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1920, with a thesis written under the supervision of Gustav von Escherich and Wilhelm Wirtinger. In autumn 1928 he married his first wife Klara Riccabona, who later died while giving birth to their sixth daughter. In 1936 he married Klara's sister, Maria Riccabona. Vietoris was survived by his six daughters, 17 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren. He lends his name to a few mathematical concepts: *Vietoris topology (see

topological space In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a Geometry, geometrical space in which Closeness (mathematics), closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric Distance (mathematics), distance. More specifically, a to ...

) *Vietoris homology (see

homology theory In mathematics, the term homology, originally introduced in algebraic topology, has three primary, closely-related usages. The most direct usage of the term is to take the ''homology of a chain complex'', resulting in a sequence of abelian grou ...

) *

* Vietoris–Begle mapping theorem *

Vietoris–Rips complex In topology, the Vietoris–Rips complex, also called the Vietoris complex or Rips complex, is a way of forming a topological space from distances in a set of points. It is an abstract simplicial complex that can be defined from any metric space ...

Vietoris remained scientifically active in his later years, even writing one paper on trigonometric sums at the age of 103. Vietoris lived to be 110 years and 309 days old, and became the oldest verified Austrian man ever.

Decorations and awards

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Orders, decorations, and medals of Austria, Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian Decoration for Science a ...

(1973) * Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria (1981) * Honorary member of the

German Mathematical Society The German Mathematical Society (, DMV) is the main professional society of German mathematicians and represents German mathematics within the European Mathematical Society (EMS) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU). It was founded in ...

(1992)

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vietoris, Leopold 1891 births 2002 deaths People from Bad Radkersburg 20th-century Austrian mathematicians Topologists Men supercentenarians Austrian men centenarians Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in World War I World War I prisoners of war held by Italy Mathematicians from Austria-Hungary