Helmut Werner (mathematician)
Helmut Werner (born March 22, 1931 in Zwenkau ; † November 22, 1985 ) was a German mathematician who dealt with numerical mathematics .
Life
Werner studied at the University of Leipzig from 1949 to 1951 and from 1951 to 1954 at the University of Göttingen , where he received his doctorate from Erhard Heinz (and Carl Ludwig Siegel ) in 1956 ( Douglas' problem for surfaces of constant mean curvature ), after his actual supervisor, Franz Rellich had passed away. He then went to the Max Planck Institute for Physics (at that time in Göttingen), where he worked on numerical problems in nuclear reactors, which he continued at the nuclear reactor construction and operating company in Karlsruhe and the AEG research institute in Frankfurt. From 1958 to 1960 he was an assistant professor at the University of Southern California , where he met Lothar Collatz , with whom he completed his habilitation in Hamburg in 1962. 1962 he was visiting professor at Stanford University . In 1964 he became a professor at the University of Münster , where he set up the Institute for Numerical and Instrumental Mathematics and the computer center as its director (which, under his leadership, switched from the outdated Zuse Z 21/22 to IBM 360/50 systems in 1966). From 1980 he became a professor at the University of Bonn .
During his time in Göttingen he dealt with analysis and differential geometry (he proved an existence theorem for H-surfaces with a given mean curvature H). Then he turned to numerical mathematics, for example approximation with rational functions , where he provided, among other things, a proof of convergence for the Remez method that he transferred to this problem. He carried out the first proof of existence for approximation by families of exponential sums and proved the discontinuity of the Chebyshev operator in abnormal points. From 1969 he investigated rational spline functions.
As head of the computer center in Münster, he also promoted applications, for example in the translation into Braille (for which he received the Louis Braille Prize in 1984 and the Carl Strehl badge in 1985) and for the creation of concordances in edition projects.
He was co-editor of the journals Computing, Numerical Mathematics and the Journal for Computational and Applied Mathematics. In 1982 and 1983 he was President of the German Mathematicians Association . He had been a member of the Leopoldina since 1978 .
He had 24 PhD students, including Robert Schaback .
Fonts (selection)
- Lecture on approximation theory . Springer 1966
- with Robert Schaback: Numerical Mathematics . 4th edition. Springer 1992
literature
- D. Braess, R. Schaback: Helmut Werner . In: German Mathematicians Association (ed.): Annual report of the German Mathematicians Association . tape 89 , No. 4. Teubner, 1987, ISSN 0012-0456 , p. 179–195 ( math.uni-bielefeld.de - with list of publications).
Web links
- R. Schaback: Helmut Werner. (PDF) Archived from the original on July 9, 2017 ; accessed on July 9, 2017 (English, illustrated short biography).
- History of mathematics at the University of Münster. (PDF) u. a. Werner biography
- Contribution to History of Approximation Theory
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Werner, Helmut |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German mathematician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 22, 1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zwenkau |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 22, 1985 |