Walther Franz Anton von Dyck (6 December 1856 – 5 November 1934), born Dyck () and later ennobled, 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 ...

. He is credited with being the first to define a mathematical group, in the modern sense in . He laid the foundations of

combinatorial group theory In mathematics, combinatorial group theory is the theory of free groups, and the concept of a presentation of a group by generators and relations. It is much used in geometric topology, the fundamental group of a simplicial complex having in a na ...

, being the first to systematically study a group by generators and relations.

Biography

Von Dyck was a student of

Felix Klein Felix Christian Klein (; ; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and Mathematics education, mathematics educator, known for his work in group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and the associations betwe ...

and served as chairman of the commission publishing Klein's encyclopedia. Von Dyck was also the editor of Kepler's works. He promoted technological education as rector of the Technische Hochschule of Munich. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1908 at Rome. Von Dyck is the son of the Bavarian painter Hermann Dyck.

Legacy

The Dyck language in formal language theory is named after him, as are Dyck's theorem and Dyck's surface in the theory of surfaces, together with the von Dyck groups, the Dyck tessellations, Dyck paths, and the Dyck graph.

Publications

* .

Notes

References

* Ulf Hashagen: ''Walther von Dyck (1856–1934). Mathematik, Technik und Wissenschaftsorganisation an der TH München'', Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003,

External links

* * 1856 births 1934 deaths Scientists from Munich 19th-century German mathematicians 20th-century German mathematicians German untitled nobility Group theorists Combinatorialists People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Academic staff of the Technical University of Munich Presidents of the Technical University of Munich Presidents of the German Mathematical Society {{Germany-mathematician-stub