Arnold F. Emch (24 March 1871 – 1959) was an American mathematician, known for his work on the

inscribed square problem The inscribed square problem, also known as the square peg problem or the Toeplitz conjecture, is an unsolved question in geometry: ''Does every plane simple closed curve contain all four vertices of some square?'' This is true if the curve is ...

. Emch received his Ph.D. in 1895 at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

under the supervision of Henry Byron Newson. In the late 1890s until 1905, he was an assistant professor of graphic mathematics in the school of engineering at the Kansas State Agricultural College (now

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant coll ...

). In 1905, Emch became a professor of mathematics at the Kantonsschule in

Solothurn, Switzerland Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the Capital (political), capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the b ...

. In 1908, Emch gave a lecture at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. From 1911 to 1939, he was a professor at the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. His wife was Hilda Walters Emch (1875–1962) and they had two sons, Walter Emch and Arnold Frederick Emch (1899–1989), a well-known management consultant.

Selected publications

* (PhD dissertation) * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

* 1871 births 1959 deaths 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians University of Kansas alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty {{US-mathematician-stub