Kurt August Hirsch (12 January 1906 – 4 November 1986) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 ...

who moved to England to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews. His research was in

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

. He also worked to reform mathematics education and became a county chess champion. The Hirsch length and Hirsch–Plotkin radical are named after him. He taught at the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

from 1938 (except for a brief internment as an

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

in 1940), moved to

King's College, Newcastle Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

in 1948, and then moved again to Queen Mary College in London in 1951, where he stayed for the remainder of his career and worked with K. W. Gruenberg. Hirsch's doctoral students include Ismail Mohamed and Ascher Wagner.

Publications

He translated several books from

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, including: * The Theory of Groups (by Aleksandr Kurosh). His first translation * Algebraic Geometry (by

Shafarevich Igor Rostislavovich Shafarevich (russian: И́горь Ростисла́вович Шафаре́вич; 3 June 1923 – 19 February 2017) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry ...

). This was later retranslated by

Miles Reid Miles Anthony Reid FRS (born 30 January 1948) is a mathematician who works in algebraic geometry. Education Reid studied the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge and obtained his Ph.D. in 1973 under the supervision of P ...

References

* *

External links

Author profile
at ''

Mathematical Reviews ''Mathematical Reviews'' is a journal published by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) that contains brief synopses, and in some cases evaluations, of many articles in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science. The AMS also pu ...

'' (subscription required). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Kurt 1906 births 1986 deaths Humboldt University of Berlin alumni 20th-century German mathematicians 20th-century British mathematicians Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom People interned in the Isle of Man during World War II