Arthur Hirsch (1866–1948) 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

Life and work

Hirsch completed his schooling in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

in 1882 and then studied mathematics and physics in the universities of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

. Among his teachers at Königsberg were

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental idea ...

and

Adolf Hurwitz Adolf Hurwitz (; 26 March 1859 – 18 November 1919) was a German mathematician who worked on algebra, mathematical analysis, analysis, geometry and number theory. Early life He was born in Hildesheim, then part of the Kingdom of Hanover, to a ...

. In 1892 he received a doctorate from Königsberg for a thesis about

linear differential equation In mathematics, a linear differential equation is a differential equation that is linear equation, linear in the unknown function and its derivatives, so it can be written in the form a_0(x)y + a_1(x)y' + a_2(x)y'' \cdots + a_n(x)y^ = b(x) wher ...

s. The following year, he took his

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

at Polytechnikum of Zurich, where he was, successively, assistant professor from 1893, titular professor from 1897 and ordinary professor from 1903 until his retirement in 1936. The work of Hirsch is primarily on differential equations and

hypergeometric function In mathematics, the Gaussian or ordinary hypergeometric function 2''F''1(''a'',''b'';''c'';''z'') is a special function represented by the hypergeometric series, that includes many other special functions as specific or limiting cases. It is ...

s. He published seven papers about it in ''

Mathematische Annalen ''Mathematische Annalen'' (abbreviated as ''Math. Ann.'' or, formerly, ''Math. Annal.'') is a German mathematical research journal founded in 1868 by Alfred Clebsch and Carl Neumann. Subsequent managing editors were Felix Klein, David Hilbert, ...

''. Hirsch was a member of the

Swiss Mathematical Society The Swiss Mathematical Society, SMS (, SMG; ), founded in Basel on 4 September 1910, is the national mathematical society of Switzerland. It is a member of the European Mathematical Society. History The SMS was established on 4 September 1910 ...

from his foundation in 1910.

References

Sources

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External links

* * , {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Arthur 19th-century German mathematicians 20th-century German mathematicians 1866 births 1948 deaths Scientists from Königsberg University of Königsberg alumni