Séverin Bays

Sévérin Bays (left) at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich in 1932

Séverin Bays (born June 2, 1885 in La Joux , † September 24, 1972 in Freiburg , resident in Chavannes-les-Forts ) was a Swiss mathematician and politician (CVP) .

biography

Séverin Bays was born on June 2, 1885 in La Joux, the son of the farmer Antoine Bays. Bays first passed the Matura at the St. Michael College in Freiburg in 1906, before he began studying mathematics at the University of Freiburg , which he completed in 1911 with a doctorate .

Immediately afterwards, Séverin Bays worked as a mathematics teacher at the St. Michael College until 1919 . In 1919 he completed his habilitation at the University of Freiburg, after which he completed further studies in Göttingen and Paris . Finally, he taught from 1921 to 1956 as a professor of mathematics at the University of Freiburg, where he was appointed dean several times and between 1937 and 1938 as rector . In addition, Bays presided over the Swiss Mathematical Society from 1928 to 1929 . From 1935 he served in the Swiss army in the position of colonel in the general staff.

Bays shifted his research focus to the areas of combinatorics and substitution groups. He married Berthe nee Seydoux in 1911. He died on September 24, 1972, a few months after he had turned 87 in Freiburg.

Political office

Séverin Bays, a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party, represented his party from 1931 to 1951 in the Grand Council of the Canton of Friborg , which he also chaired in the last year of his term of office.

literature

• History of the University of Friborg, Switzerland, 1889-1989, 3 vols., 1991–92
• General Staff 8, p. 31 f.

Web links

• Robert Ineichen: Bays, Séverin. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Publications by and about Séverin Bays in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library