Ludwig Otto Hesse (22 April 1811 – 4 August 1874) 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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. Hesse was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

, and died in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

. He worked mainly on algebraic invariants, and

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 ...

. The

Hessian matrix In mathematics, the Hessian matrix or Hessian is a square matrix of second-order partial derivatives of a scalar-valued function, or scalar field. It describes the local curvature of a function of many variables. The Hessian matrix was developed ...

, the Hesse normal form, the Hesse configuration, the

Hessian group In mathematics, the Hessian group is a finite group of order 216, introduced by who named it for Otto Hesse. It may be represented as the group of affine transformations with determinant 1 of the affine plane over the field of 3 elements.Hessian g ...

Hessian pair In mathematics, a Hessian pair or Hessian duad, named for Otto Hesse, is a pair of points of the projective line canonically associated with a set of 3 points of the projective line. More generally, one can define the Hessian pair of any triple of ...

s, Hesse's theorem, Hesse pencil, and the Hesse transfer principle are named after him. Many of Hesse's research findings were presented for the first time in ''

Crelle's Journal ''Crelle's Journal'', or just ''Crelle'', is the common name for a mathematics journal, the ''Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik'' (in English: ''Journal for Pure and Applied Mathematics''). History The journal was founded by Augus ...

'' or Hesse's textbooks.

MacTutor History of Mathematics archive The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive is a website maintained by John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson and hosted by the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It contains detailed biographies on many historical and contemporary mathem ...

and Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Life

Hesse was born in Königsberg (today

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

) as the son of Johann Gottlieb Hesse, a businessman and brewery owner and his wife Anna Karoline Reiter (1788–1865). He studied in his hometown at the Albertina under Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. Among his teachers were count Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel and Friedrich Julius Richelot. He earned his doctorate in 1840 at the University of Königsberg with the dissertation ''De octo punctis intersectionis trium superficium secundi ordinis''. In 1841, Hesse completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

thesis. In the same year he married Sophie Marie Emilie Dulk, the daughter of pharmacists and chemistry professor

Friedrich Philipp Dulk Friedrich Philipp Dulk (22 November 1788 in Stallupönen – 14 December 1851 in Königsberg) was a German pharmacist and chemist. He was the father of writer Albert Dulk (1819–1884) and father-in-law to mathematician Otto Hesse. He studi ...

(1788–1852). The couple had a son and five daughters. Hesse taught for some time physics and chemistry at the Vocational School in Königsberg and lectured at the Albertina. In 1845 he was appointed associate professor in Königsberg. In 1855 he moved to Halle and in 1856 to Heidelberg until 1868, when he finally moved to

to the newly established Polytechnic School. In 1869 he joined the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. His doctoral students include

Olaus Henrici Olaus Magnus Friedrich Erdmann Henrici, FRS (9 March 1840, Meldorf, Duchy of Holstein – 10 August 1918, Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, England) was a German mathematician who became a professor in London. After three years as an apprentice ...

, Gustav Kirchhoff, Jacob Lüroth, Adolph Mayer,

Carl Neumann Carl Gottfried Neumann (also Karl; 7 May 1832 – 27 March 1925) was a German mathematician. Biography Neumann was born in Königsberg, Prussia, as the son of the mineralogist, physicist and mathematician Franz Ernst Neumann (1798–1895), who ...

, Max Noether, Ernst Schröder, and Heinrich Martin Weber.

Works

* ''Vorlesungen über analytische Geometrie des Raumes.'' (Lectures on analytic geometry of space) Leipzig (3. A. 1876)
Internet Archive
* ''Vorlesungen aus der analytischen Geometrie der geraden Linie, des Punktes und des Kreises.'' (Lectures from the analytical geometry of the straight line, the point and the circle) Leipzig (1881). Hrsg. A. Gundelfinger
Internet Archive
* ''Die Determinanten elementar behandelt.'' (Determinants elementary treated) Leipzig (2. A. 1872)
Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum
* ''Die vier Species.'' (The four Species) Leipzig (1872)
Internet Archive
His collected works were published in 1897 by

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...

. *
Internet Archive

References

External links

* *
Vorlesungen über analytische Geometrie des Raumes, insbesondere über Oberflächen zweiter Ordnung
* Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography:
Hesse, Ludwig Otto
1811 births 1874 deaths 19th-century German mathematicians Algebraists Geometers Scientists from Königsberg University of Königsberg alumni University of Königsberg faculty Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg faculty Heidelberg University faculty Technical University of Munich faculty German textbook writers Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities {{Germany-mathematician-stub