Matyáš Lerch

Matyáš Lerch (born February 20, 1860 in Milínov , † August 3, 1922 in Schüttenhofen ) was an Austro-Czech mathematician .

Life

Matyáš Lerch came from the family of a small farmer. As a small child he had an accident and from the age of six could only move with a walking aid. The accident also meant that he could not go to school for the first time until he was nine years old. There he showed a great talent for mathematics from the start. After attending the community school, he briefly worked as an employee in the František Scheinost factory. Despite economic difficulties, he decided to go to school. After successfully passing the entrance exam and exceptional exam results, he was granted permission to attend the fifth grade of the Pilsen grammar school. He passed his Abitur in 1880 at the secondary school in Rakonitz . While he was still attending high school, he autodidactically studied all the mathematics books available to him.

In 1880 he enrolled at the Technical University in Prague as a full student of civil engineering. He studied for three years with Eduard Weyr , Gabriel Blažek and František Tilšer , among others .

Originally he wanted to become a teacher after college, but could not do so because of his disability and therefore devoted himself entirely to mathematics. From 1883 to 1884 he took part in lectures given by František Josef Studnička , who took great pleasure in the student. A year later, Lerch received a scholarship and studied in Berlin with Karl Weierstrass , Leopold Kronecker , Lazarus Immanuel Fuchs and Carl Runge, among others . Here he also met young mathematicians such as Sofja Kowalewskaja and Arthur Karl Wilhelm Heffter . On his return he completed his habilitation in 1886 and became a private lecturer at the Prague Technical University. At the same time he began his journalistic activities. From 1886 to 1896 he published 110 articles at home and abroad. At the same time, his work was read by mathematicians, including the French Charles Hermite , who publicly valued his scientific work.

Despite numerous efforts to gain a professorship at a Bohemian university, he did not succeed. In 1896 he therefore accepted the offer from the Swiss University in Freiburg im Üechtland . He taught here for the next ten years. At the same time, his financial situation improved, and he was able to afford an operation that no longer required his crutch. In 1906, after being appointed professor at the Moravian Technical University in Brno , he returned to Bohemia . In 1920 he was appointed to the Masaryk University in Brno.

After his return he was honored many times in his homeland. He was elected an honorary member of the Association of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists and in 1909 received an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Prague University . At this point, however, his health was in poor health. He suffered from diabetes , incurable at the time because insulin had not yet been discovered. For health reasons, he had to refuse the post of rector of the Brno Technical University. In the end, he and his assistant Otakar Borůvka campaigned for the establishment of the mathematical institute at Masaryk University. He died of pneumonia while on vacation.

In 1900 Matyáš Lerch received the Grand Prize of the Académie des sciences for his work in number theory . Among other things, Lerch's sentence comes from him .

literature

Obituary:

• Karel Petr: Matyáš Lerch , Almanach České akademie věd a umění 33 , 116-138, 1923

Catalog of works and curriculum vitae:

• Josef Škrášek: Catalog raisonné Matyáš Lerch (Russian), Czechoslovak Math. J. 3 , 111–122, 1953 ( online ; PDF; 1.3 MB) (in Czech in: Časopis Pěst. Mat. 78 , 139–148, 1953 ( online ))
• Ludvík Frank: On the life of Professor Matyáš Lerch (Czech), Časopis Pěst. Mat. 78 , 119-137, 1953 ( online )

On his 100th birthday:

• Ludvík Frank: On the centenary of death of Matyáš Lerch (Czech), Pokroky Mat. Fyz. Astronomer. 5 , 765-771, 1960 ( online )
• Josef Škrášek: Life and work of Professor Matyáš Lerch (on his 100th anniversary) (Czech), Časopis Pěst. Mat. 85 , 228-240, 1960 ( online )
• Josef Škrášek: Le centenaire de la naissance de Matyás Lerch (French), Czechoslovak Math. J. 10 , 631–635, 1960 ( online )

Additional:

• Otakar Borůvka: Obituary for the Czech mathematician Matyas Lerch (Czech), Pokroky Mat. Fyz. Astronomer. 17 , 130-134, 1972 ( online )
• Karel Lepka: Matyáš Lerch's work on number theory , Brno, 1995
• Eduard Fuchs, Karel Lepka: Matyáš Lerch (Czech), Pokroky Mat. Fyz. Astronomer. 48 , 50-62, 2003 ( online )
• Hornich:  Lerch Matyas. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1972, p. 151.