Andreas Speiser

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Andreas Speiser (born June 10, 1885 in Basel ; † October 12, 1970 ) was a Swiss mathematician and philosopher .

Andreas Speiser

life and work

Speiser came from an influential Basel family. He was the son of National Councilor Paul Speiser and grandson of the Basel government councilor Karl Sarasin . His younger brother Ernst Speiser was a member of the National Council and Council of States. From 1904 Speiser studied in Göttingen a . a. with David Hilbert , Felix Klein , Hermann Minkowski . There he received his doctorate in 1909 ( The theory of binary quadratic forms with coefficients and indeterminates in any number field ), officially with Hilbert; Since Hilbert turned from number theory to integral equations at that time, Speiser was mostly in contact with Minkowski. After further studies in London and Paris , he received his habilitation in Strasbourg in 1911 . From 1917 he was associate professor and from 1919 full professor at the University of Zurich . In 1924/25 he was President of the Swiss Mathematical Society. In 1932 he became a member of the Leopoldina . In 1939 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1944 he became a professor in Basel .

Speiser dealt with number theory, group theory and the theory of Riemann surfaces. He organized the translation of Leonard Dickson's fundamental book Algebras and their Number Theory (1927) by his assistant Johann Jakob Burckhardt , which strongly influenced the study of the theory of algebras by the schools of Emmy Noether and Helmut Hasse, and he also directed an appendix on ideal theory at. His theory of finite order groups is a classic, richly illustrated introductory work on group theory. There (in addition to applications in Galois theory, elementary number theory and Platonic solids) ornaments are also extensively examined. B. studied on a trip to Egypt in 1928. It stimulated many mathematicians to deal with this topic (testified by Heinrich Heesch , Johann Jakob Burckhardt , among others ).

In number theory, the Hilbert-Speiser theorem and the Hilbert-Speiser number fields are named after him and David Hilbert , in function theory the Speiser graph of a Riemann surface and the Speiser class of meromorphic functions are associated with his name.

Speiser also dealt with the history of mathematics and, as director general of the Euler Commission, was the editor of Leonhard Euler's Opera Omnia and the works of Johann Heinrich Lambert . As a philosopher, he devoted himself primarily to Plato and wrote a commentary on his dialogue Parmenides . He also dealt with Plotinus and Hegel .

He was also always interested in the connection between mathematics and art. He said in a lecture (September 11, 1949, see Writings, p. 14):

“In the Greek language techne means art and technology at the same time and so I would like to close with the appeal to never separate the three things: formula, art, technology , but to keep in mind that salvation lies only in the mutual cooperation of these three can. "

Andreas Speiser should not be confused with the Swiss engineer and computer scientist Ambrosius Paul Speiser .

Fonts

literature

  • Martin Eichler : Obituary in the negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society, vol. 150, 1970, p. 325
  • JJ Burckhardt: Obituary in the quarterly journal of the Natural Research Society Vol. 115, 1970, 471
  • JJ Burckhardt: The mathematics at the University of Zurich 1916–1950 under the professors R. Fueter, A. Speiser and P. Finsler , Basel, 1980
  • Urs Stammbach :  Andreas Speiser. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 654 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Andreas Speiser
  2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 229.
  3. ↑ Without the efforts of Speiser and his friend Karl Rudolf Fueter , the edition started by Rudio would probably not have been continued through the First World War
personal data
SURNAME Speiser, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss mathematician and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 1970
Place of death Basel