Heinrich Maschke

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinrich Maschke

Heinrich Maschke (born October 24, 1853 in Breslau , † March 1, 1908 in Chicago ) was a German mathematician .

Life

Maschke's father was a well-known doctor . Son Heinrich attended the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau from 1863 to 1872 . He then studied at the University of Heidelberg , but had to return to Breslau in 1873 to do his one-year military service. In Berlin he continued his studies. In 1878 he passed the exam for the higher teaching post there. But he was aiming for a lectureship at a university. So he first went to Göttingen , where he received his doctorate in 1879 at the Philosophical Faculty. When he realized that a teaching post at a university was initially hopeless for him, he went as a teacher in 1880Luisenstädtische Gymnasium in Berlin. While teaching at a high school made him personally come to the conclusion that he was doing the wrong job, in reality he was a very good teacher. In 1886/87 he took a leave of absence and went back to Göttingen. At Felix Klein's , he met his fellow student from Berlin, Oskar Bolza , with whom he later became a close friend. Maschke published his first scientific paper in 1887. Although he went back to Berlin again and did his duty as a math teacher there, in 1889 he decided to give up his master's degree for good. His friend Bolza was meanwhile in the USA and had received a call to Clark University in Worcester (Massachusetts) .

Maschke, who would have preferred to go to the USA, was warned by Bolza that it was not that easy to gain a foothold in academic positions. Maschke therefore also studied electrical engineering in Berlin and then in Darmstadt . In 1891 he emigrated to the USA and initially worked for a year in a company for electrical instruments in the state of New Jersey . In 1882 the University of Chicago was founded. Bolza was one of the first lecturers and he made sure that Maschke also came to Chicago. Together with the head of the mathematics faculty, Eliakim Moore , they campaigned intensively for a research-oriented mathematics training facility. Maschke became an associate professor in 1896 and a full professor in 1907 .

He continued to correspond with Klein in Göttingen. In 1896 Maschke published his work “On the arithmetic character of the coefficients of the substitutions of finite linear substitution groups”. In 1897 further research results appeared: "Proof of the theorem that those finite linear substitution groups in which some continuously vanishing coefficients occur are intransitive".

Maschke's second field of work was differential geometry . In addition to Moore, it was also Maschke's success that the excellent reputation of the mathematics faculty of the University of Chicago was further consolidated. Thanks to Klein's mediation, an important contribution also appeared in Germany in “Mathematische Annalen”. His work and research results have been published in "Transactions of the American Mathematical Society". After Maschke was Council of the American Mathematical Society from 1902 to 1905 , he became its Vice President in 1907. Moore increasingly recognized that the way Klein worked in Göttingen, Bolza and Maschke had a great influence on his work in Chicago. He wrote to Klein in 1904:

"Certainly in the domain of mathematics German scholars in general and yourself in particular have played, by way of example and counsel and direct and indirect inspiration, quite a leading role in the development of creative mathematicians in this country ..."

According to him, which is set by Maschke named.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Polcino & Sehgal (2002), p. 140
personal data
SURNAME Maschke, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw , Germany
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1908
Place of death Chicago , USA