František Wolf (1904–1989) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

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 ...

known for his contributions to

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics concerned with relationships between angles and side lengths of triangles. In particular, the trigonometric functions relate the angles of a right triangle with ratios of its side lengths. The fiel ...

and

mathematical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series ( ...

, specifically the study of the perturbation of

linear operator In mathematics, and more specifically in linear algebra, a linear map (also called a linear mapping, linear transformation, vector space homomorphism, or in some contexts linear function) is a mapping V \to W between two vector spaces that pr ...

s. Wolf was born 1904 in

Prostějov Prostějov (; ) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 43,000 inhabitants. The city is historically known for its fashion industry. The historic city centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zo ...

, then part of the

Austro-Hungarian empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

and now part of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, the elder of two children of a furniture maker. He studied physics at

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, and then mathematics at

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

under the supervision of

Otakar Borůvka Otakar Borůvka (10 May 1899 – 22 July 1995) was a Czech mathematician. He is best known for his work in graph theory.. Education and career Borůvka was born in Uherský Ostroh, a town in Moravia, Austria-Hungary (today in the Czech Republic) ...

; he was awarded a doctorate in 1928 (degree ''Rerum Naturum Doctor''). He then taught mathematics at the high school level until 1937, when he obtained a faculty position at Charles University. When the German army invaded

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in 1938, Wolf obtained an invitation to visit the

Mittag-Leffler Institute The Mittag-Leffler Institute (Swedish: Institut Mittag-Leffler) is a mathematical research institute in Sweden. Located in Djursholm, a suburb of Stockholm, it invites scholars to participate in half-year programs in specialized mathematical su ...

in Sweden; he remained in Sweden as part of the underground resistance to the Germans until 1941 before emigrating to the United States. He taught at

Macalester College Macalester College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate institution with an enrollment of 2,142 students in the fall of 2023. The college ha ...

for a year, and then joined the faculty of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1942. At Berkeley, he was one of the co-founders of the ''

Pacific Journal of Mathematics The Pacific Journal of Mathematics is a mathematics research journal supported by several universities and research institutes, and currently published on their behalf by Mathematical Sciences Publishers, a non-profit academic publishing organisa ...

'' in 1951. He retired in 1972, but then moved to

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

where he helped to set up a graduate program in mathematics at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. He died on August 12, 1989, in Berkeley....

Publications

References

Czechoslovak mathematicians 1904 births 1989 deaths Masaryk University alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States Czechoslovak expatriates in Sweden Charles University alumni Academic staff of Charles University Operator theorists {{Europe-mathematician-stub