Georg Kreisel FRS (September 15, 1923 – March 1, 2015) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal ...

ian who studied and worked in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and America.

Biography

Kreisel was born in Graz and came from a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish background; his family sent him to the

before the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

in 1938. He studied mathematics at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, and then, during

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 ...

, worked on

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

subjects. Kreisel never took a Ph.D., though much later, in 1962, he was awarded the Cambridge degree of

Sc.D. Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

, a `higher doctorate' given on the basis of published research. He taught at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

from 1949 until 1954 and then worked 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 ...

from 1955 to 1957. He returned to Reading in 1957, but then taught at Stanford University from 1958-1959. Then back at Reading for the year 1959-1960, and then the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

1960-1962. Kreisel was appointed a professor at Stanford University in 1962 and remained on the faculty there until he retired in 1985. Kreisel worked in various areas of logic, and especially in proof theory, where he is known for his so-called " unwinding" program, whose aim was to extract

constructive Although the general English usage of the adjective constructive is "helping to develop or improve something; helpful to someone, instead of upsetting and negative," as in the phrase "constructive criticism," in legal writing ''constructive'' has ...

content from superficially non-constructive proofs. Kreisel was elected to 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 ...

in 1966; Kreisel remained a close friend of Francis Crick whom he had met in the Royal Navy during WWII. While a student at Cambridge, Kreisel was the student most respected by

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

Ray Monk Ray Monk (born 15 February 1957) is a British biographer who is renowned for his biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. He is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton, where he ...

writes, "In 1944--when Kreisel was still only twenty-one--Wittgenstein shocked

Rush Rhees Rush Rhees (; 19 March 1905 – 22 May 1989) was an American philosopher. He is principally known as a student, friend, and literary executor of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. With G. E. M. Anscombe he was co-editor of Wittgenstein's pos ...

by declaring Kreisel to be the most able philosopher he had ever met who was also a mathematician." Kreisel was also a close friend of the Anglo-Irish philosopher and novelist

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her ...

. They met at Cambridge in 1947 during Murdoch's year of study there.

Peter Conradi Peter Conradi is a British author and journalist who is the Europe Editor of ''The Sunday Times'' of London. Biography Conradi is the author of '' The Red Ripper: Inside the Mind of Russia's Most Brutal Serial Killer'' (about Andrei Chikatilo); ...

reports that Murdoch transcribed Kreisel's letters into her journals over the next fifty years. According to Conradi, "For half a century she nonetheless records variously Kreisel's brilliance, wit and sheer 'dotty' solipsistic strangeness, his amoralism, cruelty, ambiguous vanity and obscenity." Murdoch dedicated her 1971 novel ''

An Accidental Man ''An Accidental Man'' is a novel by Iris Murdoch, which was published in 1971. It was her fourteenth novel. The complex story is set in London and involves a large number of characters, many of whom are related to each other by family or marria ...

'' to Kreisel and he became a (partial) model for several characters in other novels, including Marcus Vallar in '' The Message to the Planet'' and Guy Openshaw in ''

Nuns and Soldiers ''Nuns and Soldiers'' is a 1980 novel by Iris Murdoch. The setting is England and two of the main characters are Gertrude, a widow, and Anne, an ex-nun. Plot Guy Openshaw is 44 years old and on his death bed. Cancer is coming down hard on Gu ...

''.* After retirement Kreisel lived in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

, Austria. He wrote several biographies of mathematicians including Kurt Gödel,

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

and

Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (; ; 27 February 1881 – 2 December 1966), usually cited as L. E. J. Brouwer but known to his friends as Bertus, was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher, who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and compl ...

. He died in Salzburg, aged 91.

Anecdotes

When Kreisel was teaching at The University of Reading he would frequently take the train into London. There was a particularly fast train that was timed just right for the shows in London, and he would go to the station at that time. He checked the timetable one day, and that train was canceled. But out of habit one day he showed up at the station at the usual time and the train was there. It seems that it was going from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

to London, stopping at Reading only to get water. He got on the train anyway, and from then on took that train regularly. One day he was accosted by the conductor after he got on. "The train doesn't stop here sir!" "In that case I didn't get on here."''Kreiseliana: About and Around Georg Kreisel'', ed. by Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Wellesley, MA, 1996, (Festschrift)

References

External links

* Piergiorgio Odifreddi (ed.), ''Kreiseliana: About and Around George Kreisel'', Wellesley, Massachusetts: A. K. Peters, 1996. . * tp://ftp.cs.ru.nl/pub/CompMath.Found/kr.ps Kreisel, lambda calculus, a windmill and a castleContains personal recollections about Kreisel by his student

Henk Barendregt Hendrik Pieter (Henk) Barendregt (born 18 December 1947, Amsterdam) is a Dutch logician, known for his work in lambda calculus and type theory. Life and work Barendregt studied mathematical logic at Utrecht University, obtaining his master's de ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kreisel, Georg 1923 births Austrian mathematicians 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club Austrian logicians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Fellows of the Royal Society 2015 deaths Austrian emigrants to the United Kingdom British emigrants to the United States

Biography

Anecdotes

See also

References

External links