Heinrich Ferdinand Scherk

Heinrich Ferdinand Scherk (born October 27, 1798 in Posen , † October 4, 1885 in Bremen ) was a German mathematician and astronomer .

biography

Scherk came to Breslau in 1809 and attended the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium , which was directed by Johann Kaspar Friedrich Manso . Already here he received the first suggestions to deal with mathematics and astronomy. At the age of 20, Scherk left high school with the Abitur and initially studied at the new Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Breslau , among others with Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes . In 1820 he went to the Albertus University in Königsberg for two years , where Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel became his teacher and sponsor. Scherk's first works on astronomy also date from this period. They appeared in the Astronomical Yearbook published by Johann Elert Bode and in the Astronomical News founded by Heinrich Christian Schumacher .

Scherk went to Carl Friedrich Gauß at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in 1822 . With an unfinished at Bessel doctoral thesis he was at the 1823 Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin with Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes doctorate . In the same year Scherk married and fathered eight children.

A year later (1824) he completed his habilitation in Königsberg. In 1825 his four mathematical treatises were published in Berlin .

On Bessel's recommendation, the Friedrichs University Halle appointed Scherk as associate professor in 1826 . With important contributions in the journal for pure and applied mathematics by August Crelle , he gained further reputation. He became a member and most recently director of the Royal Scientific Examination Commission for the Province of Saxony . At that time, cited works on minimal areas and the distribution of prime numbers were still produced today . In 1831 Scherk was appointed full professor at the University of Halle. At his own request, he resigned from the service of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1833 .

He went to the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel in the Duchy of Holstein , which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Denmark , as full professor for mathematics and astronomy . Scherk thus succeeded Nikolaus Theodor Reimer . In 1835 he was also the administrator of the university property. In 1841/42, 1842/43 and 1848/49 he was rector of the CAU.

Although he was knighted in the Order of Danebrog in 1840 , Scherk was involved in the Schleswig-Holstein uprising in 1848 . After the defeat of the Schleswig-Holstein Army , he was relieved of all offices in 1852 and dismissed from the Danish civil service. When efforts to reinstate him in Halle or Kiel were unsuccessful, he accepted a teaching position at the commercial school (Bremen) until his retirement in 1874 . He died shortly before his 87th birthday.

As the first after Leonhard Euler (chain line, catenoids, 1744) and Jean-Baptiste Meusnier de la Place (helicoid or spiral surface, 1776), Scherk discovered a new minimal surface. The minimum area of Scherk was in a price for the work in 1835 des Sciences Académie published.

University of Halle, Department of Mathematics / Computer Science: Heinrich Ferdinand Scherk (1798–1885)

↑ Rector's speeches (HKM)
↑ Remarks about the smallest area within given limits . Journal for Pure and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 13 (1835), pp. 185-208

personal data
SURNAME	Scherk, Heinrich Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German mathematician and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	October 27, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH	Poses
DATE OF DEATH	October 4, 1885
Place of death	Bremen