Helmut Heinrich (mathematician)

Helmut Fritz Heinrich (born  September 5, 1904 in Gottesberg , district of Schweidnitz , province of Silesia ; †  January 14, 1997 in Kiel ) was a German mathematician who was professor from 1954 to 1970 and director of the Institute for Applied Mathematics from 1956 to 1970 at the Technical University of Dresden . He dealt in particular with problems of numerical mathematics and linear algebra , and from 1964 belonged to the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina .

Life

Helmut Heinrich was born in 1904 in Gottesberg in Lower Silesia and, after graduating from the grammar school in Schweidnitz in 1923, studied mathematics at the Technical University in Breslau from 1923 to 1928 . After completing his studies, he taught mathematics and physics at the Oberrealschule in Glogau , and in 1929 and 1931 he passed the first and second state examinations for teaching at secondary schools. During the school holidays he worked as a research assistant at the Breslauer Hochschule, so that in 1933 he received his doctorate in engineering under Werner Schmeidler and Fritz Noether on a topic from wing theory .

From 1933 to 1936 he worked in China as a professor of mathematics and descriptive geometry at the Tung Chi State University in Woosung near Shanghai . He then again went to the Technical University Wroclaw, where he in 1937 when Werner Schmeidler and Hans Happel with a thesis on the use nomographischer methods for solving ordinary differential equations habilitation was and from 1938 worked as a lecturer in Pure and Applied Mathematics. After Breslau the end of the Second World War the fort was declared, he worked as a lecturer at the Technical University of Dresden in Friedrich Adolf Willers and then as a research associate of the Junkers aircraft engine plant in Dessau operates.

After the end of the war, he worked as part of reparations payments from October 1946 to June 1954 in the area of aircraft construction in Kuibyshev in the Soviet Union . After his return to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) he became a professor at the Technical University of Dresden with a full teaching assignment for special areas of applied mathematics. Two years later he took over the management of the Institute for Applied Mathematics from Friedrich Adolf Willers, and in 1958 he was appointed full professor. From 1963 to 1965 he served as dean of the faculty for mathematics and natural sciences at the Dresden University and in 1968/1969 as director of the mathematics section. In 1970 he retired and died in 1997 in Kiel, where he had lived from 1987. He was buried in the Moritzburg cemetery.

Helmut Heinrich was married and the father of a daughter and three sons, one of whom Reinhart Heinrich worked as a professor of theoretical biophysics at the Humboldt University in Berlin and who made particular contributions to the development of systems biology .

Scientific work

During his time at the Technical University of Dresden, Helmut Heinrich mainly dealt with questions of numerical mathematics and linear algebra , including the numerical treatment of nonlinear systems of equations , the limitation of eigenvalues , the condition measure for matrices and optimization problems . From 1959 to 1974 he acted as editor-in-chief of the journal for applied mathematics and mechanics and from 1959 to 1968 as deputy chairman of the society for applied mathematics and mechanics (GAMM).

Awards

Helmut Heinrich was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina from 1964 and received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Vienna in 1972 . In 1961 he was awarded the GDR Patriotic Order of Merit in recognition of his academic achievements . The GAMM granted him lifetime membership in 1974 and also made him an honorary member in 1993.

Works (selection)

• Introduction to practical analysis. Leipzig 1963 (licensed edition Aachen 1963)
• On Gauss's footsteps in numerical mathematics. Dresden 1977

literature

• Jochen W. Schmidt and Hubert Schwetlick: Helmut Heinrich September 5, 1904-14. January 1997. In: Journal for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics. 77 (5 )/1997. Wiley-VCH, pp. 323-325, ISSN  0044-2267
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr. techn. hc Heinrich, Helmut (Fritz). In: Dorit Petschel : 175 years of TU Dresden. Volume 3: The professors of the TU Dresden 1828–2003. Edited on behalf of the Society of Friends and Supporters of the TU Dresden e. V. von Reiner Pommerin , Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-412-02503-8 , p. 343.

Web links

• Helmut Heinrich in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Technical University of Dresden (ed.): Graves of professors of the alma mater dresdensis in cemeteries in Dresden and the surrounding area . 2nd Edition. Lausitzer Druck- und Verlagshaus, 2003, p. 52.