Stefan Bergman (5 May 1895 – 6 June 1977) was a

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

-born American

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 ...

whose primary work was in

complex analysis Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic ...

. He is known for the

kernel function In operator theory, a branch of mathematics, a positive-definite kernel is a generalization of a positive-definite function or a positive-definite matrix. It was first introduced by James Mercer in the early 20th century, in the context of solvi ...

he discovered in 1922 at

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. This function is now known as the

Bergman kernel In the mathematical study of several complex variables, the Bergman kernel, named after Stefan Bergman, is the reproducing kernel for the Hilbert space ( RKHS) of all square integrable holomorphic functions on a domain ''D'' in C''n''. In det ...

. Bergman taught for many years at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Biography

Born in

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not Si ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, to a German Jewish family, Bergman received his

Ph.D. 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 ...

at University of Berlin in 1921 for a dissertation on

Fourier analysis In mathematics, Fourier analysis () is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by sums of simpler trigonometric functions. Fourier analysis grew from the study of Fourier series, and is named after Joseph Fo ...

. His advisor,

Richard von Mises Richard Martin Edler von Mises (; 19 April 1883 – 14 July 1953) was an Austrian scientist and mathematician who worked on solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, aeronautics, statistics and probability theory. He held the position of ...

, had a strong influence on him, lasting for the rest of his career.. In 1933, Bergman was forced to leave his post at the Berlin University because he was a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

. He fled first to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, where he stayed until 1939, and then to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1939, he emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where he would remain for the rest of life. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1951. He was a professor at Stanford University from 1952 until his retirement in 1972. He was an

invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians An invitation system is a method of encouraging people to join an organization, such as a Club (organization), club or a website. In regular society, it refers to any system whereby new members are chosen; they cannot simply apply. In relation to w ...

in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and in 1962 in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

(''On meromorphic functions of several complex variables''). He died in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, aged 82.

Bergman Prize

The

Stefan Bergman Prize The Stefan Bergman Prize is a mathematics award, funded by the estate of the widow of mathematician Stefan Bergman and supported by the American Mathematical Society. The award is granted for mathematical research in: "1) the theory of the kernel ...

in mathematics was initiated by Bergman's wife in her will, in memory of her husband's work. The

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

supports the prize and selects the committee of judges.Other Prizes and Awards Supported by the AMS
/ref> The prize is awarded for: # the theory of the

and its applications in real and complex analysis; or # function-theoretic methods in the theory of

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to ho ...

s of elliptic type with a special attention to Bergman's and related operator methods.

Selected publications

*. *. *. * * *. The original edition was published in 1941 by Interscience Publishers. *. *''The Kernel Function and Conformal Mapping'', American Mathematical Society 1950, 2nd edn. 1970 *with

Menahem Max Schiffer Menahem Max Schiffer (24 September 1911, Berlin – 11 November 1997)) was a German-born American mathematician who worked in complex analysis, partial differential equations, and mathematical physics. Biography Menachem Max Schiffer studied p ...

: ''Kernel Functions and elliptic differential equations in mathematical physics'', Academic Press 1953 *with John G. Herriot
''Application of the method of the kernel function for solving boundary value problems'', Numerische Mathematik 3, 1961
*''Integral operators in the theory of linear partial differential equations'', Springer 1961, 2nd edn. 1969

References

External links

Author profile
in the database

zbMATH zbMATH Open, formerly Zentralblatt MATH, is a major reviewing service providing reviews and abstracts for articles in pure and applied mathematics, produced by the Berlin office of FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastru ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergman, Stefan 1895 births 1977 deaths American people of Polish-Jewish descent 20th-century Polish mathematicians Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Emigrants from Nazi Germany Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Jewish American scientists Complex analysts American mathematical analysts People from Częstochowa Partial differential equation theorists Stanford University Department of Mathematics faculty People from Palo Alto, California Brown University faculty Yeshiva University faculty Academic staff of Tomsk State University

Biography

Bergman Prize

Selected publications

See also

References

External links