John Lennart Berggren

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John Lennart Berggren , called Lennart Berggren, (* 1941 in Spokane ) is a Canadian historian of science and especially a historian of mathematics.

biography

Berggren studied mathematics at the University of Washington in Seattle with a bachelor's degree in 1963 and a master's degree in 1965. In 1966 he received his doctorate there. In 1963 he became Assistant Professor, 1973 Associate Professor and 1984 Professor of Mathematics at Simon Fraser University . From 1996 to 2001 he was head of the mathematics faculty. 1972/73 and 1975/76 he was a visiting scholar at Yale University and from 1990 to 1992 at Harvard University . He has been Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University since 2006.

He is mainly concerned with ancient Greek and medieval Islamic mathematics , mathematical cartography and astronomy, for example about Ptolemy and his map work, about Archimedes , Abu Sahl al-Quhi and the historical transfer of scientific ideas. He wrote the section on the history of Arabic mathematics in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

He is a corresponding member of the Academie Internationale d´histoire des sciences.

Glen Van Brummelen is one of his PhD students .

Fonts

  • Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam , Springer 1986
    • German translation of Mathematics in Medieval Islam , Springer 2011
  • Islamic Mathematics, in Victor Katz (editor) The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India and Islam- a sourcebook , Princeton University Press 2007
  • Islamic acquisition of foreign sciences - a cultural perspective , American Journal of Islamic Soc. Sci., Volume 9, 1992, p. 310
  • with Alexander Jones (translator and editor): Ptolemy's Geography - an annotated translation of the theoretical chapters , Princeton University Press 2000
  • Ptolemy's maps of earth and heavens - a new interpretation , Archive for the History of Exact Sciences, Vol. 43, 1991, pp. 133-144
  • with James Evans: Gemino's "Introduction to the phenomena": a translation and survey of a hellenistic text on astronomy , Princeton University Press 2006
  • with RSD Thomas: Euclids Phenomena - a translation and study of a hellenistic work in spherical astronomy , Garland Publishing 1996
  • as editor with BR Goldstein: From ancient omens to statistical mechanics: essays on the exact sciences presented to Asger Aaboe , Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1987
  • with Jonathan Borwein , Peter Borwein : Pi - a sourcebook , Springer 2004

source

  • Canadian Who's Who, 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Berggren Spurious Theorems in Archimedes' Equilibrium of Planes Book I , Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 16, 1976, pages 87-103
personal data
SURNAME Berggren, John Lennart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Spokane