Joachim Nitsche

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Joachim Nitsche (born September 2, 1926 in Nossen in Saxony ; † January 12, 1996 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German mathematician who dealt with partial differential equations and numerical mathematics .

Live and act

His parents were high school math and physics teachers. After military service in the Second World War and a prisoner of war, he graduated from high school in Bischofswerda in 1946 and studied mathematics at the University of Göttingen from 1947 , where he received his diploma from Franz Rellich . In 1951 he received his doctorate under Wolfgang Haack at the TU Berlin . Two years later he completed his habilitation in 1953 at the Technical University of Berlin with the thesis boundary value problems for the embedding and bending of positively curved bordered surfaces and in 1955 became a lecturer at the Free University of Berlin . In 1957 he went to IBM in Böblingen , where he shifted his research area to numerical mathematics.

In 1958 Nitsche became an adjunct professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , where he held the chair for applied mathematics from 1962 until his retirement in 1991. In 1971/72 he was dean of the mathematics faculty.

He had been married to Gisela Lange since 1952 and had three children. His brother Johannes Nitsche was also a well-known mathematician.

Research, achievements

At first he dealt with partial differential equations in the context of differential geometry (bending of surfaces and embedding of bending surfaces). In numerical mathematics, he dealt with spline functions and especially with finite elements, for example for the solution of parabolic and elliptic partial differential equations, their error estimation and their convergence properties. He was one of the world's leading scientists in this field and held conferences on it in Oberwolfach (1977, 1980). He also dealt with game theory and optimization tasks . In 1978 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki ( approximation of the one-dimensional Stefan problem by finite elements ).

literature

  • Herbert Amann, Hans-Peter Helfrich, Reinhard Scholz: Joachim Nitsche , Annual Report DMV, Volume 99, 1997
  • Nitsche trick: A criterion for the quasi-optimality of the Ritz method , in: Numerische Mathematik, Volume 11, 1968

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ↑ In 1962 he was offered a professorship at the Vienna University of Technology, but after creating a chair for applied mathematics, he stayed in Freiburg.
personal data
SURNAME Nitsche, Joachim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nitsche, Joachim A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Nossen
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1996
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau