Helmar Gunter Frank (19 February 1933,

Waiblingen Waiblingen (; Swabian: ''Woeblinge'') is a town in the southwest of Germany, located in the center of the densely populated Stuttgart region, directly neighboring Stuttgart. It is the capital and largest city of the Rems-Murr district. , Waiblin ...

– 15 December 2013,

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

) 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 ...

and pedagogist. He was among the first scientists to apply mathematical methods in teaching and psychology. He established a method to measure

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

on an absolute and homogeneous scale rather than by comparison between individuals. Frank got his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

in 1959, working on the principles of an informational

esthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

. From 1961 to 1963 he was a member of the research group on "learning automata" at the

University of Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public university, public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Ka ...

. In 1963 he was appointed professor for informational sciences (later

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

) at the ''Pädagogische Hochschule''

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 ...

(being the youngest full professor in Germany, with an age of 30) and established the Institute of Cybernetics. In 1972 he became one of the founders of the

University of Paderborn Paderborn University () is a public research university in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in 1972 and 20,308 students were enrolled at the university in the winter semester 2016/2017 in 62 different degree programmes. ...

where he continued his work on a cybernetic theory of psychology and pedagogy. In 1985 he founded, together with

Reinhard Selten Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten (; 5 October 1930 – 23 August 2016) was a German economics, economist, who won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with John Harsanyi and John Forbes Nash, John Nash). He is also well ...

, Ivo Lapenna, Fabrizio Pennacchietti,

Humphrey Tonkin Humphrey R. Tonkin (born 2 December 1939) is professor of English, and served as the 4th president of the University of Hartford. He is also a dedicated Esperantist. Biography Born in Truro, England, Tonkin is a dual citizen of the U.K. and th ...

, and others, the

Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj San Marino The International Academy of Sciences San Marino (, AIS) was a scientific association. It was established in 1983 and had its first convention, SUS 1, around New Year 1984 in the City of San Marino. After the Sammarinese skeleton law on higher edu ...

(AIS), an international academy of sciences. He was its president until December 2007. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was the initiator and scientific evaluator of an international teaching experiment on the propaedeutic value of Esperanto. In 1998 he was awarded the 1st class

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first President of the Federal Republic ...

. Frank taught as a guest or honorary professor at the

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

and the universities of

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra (river), Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of ...

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 ...

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

, and

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

. He was the founder and long-time editor-in-chief of the

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication designed to further the progress of science by disseminating new research findings to the scientific community. These journals serve as a platform for researchers, schola ...

''Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik und Geisteswissenschaft''. Frank's wife, Věra Barandovská-Frank, is a well-known Czech

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

References

External links

University of Paderborn

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frank, Helmar 1933 births 2013 deaths 20th-century German mathematicians 21st-century German mathematicians German Esperantists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Academic staff of Paderborn University