Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
20022002
www.math.uiuc.edu
This calendar was designed by Tori Corkery for the UIUC Department of Mathematics. Special thanks goes to Sara Nelson, Lori Dick, Tess Rannebarger and Professor Joseph Rosenblatt for their help and support on this project.
Photos and background information for this calendar were obtained via the web from the Turnbull WWW Server MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, located at www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk.
Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1409 West Green Street Urbana, Illinois 61801
[email protected] www.math.uiuc.edu Tel.: 217-333-3350 Fax: 217-333-9576
Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya Born January 15, 1850 in Moscow, Russia Died February 10, 1891 in Stockholm, Sweden
Sofia’s exposure to mathematics began at a very young age. She claims to have studied her father’s old calculus notes that were papered on her nursery walls in replacement for a shortage of wallpaper. She was forced to marry to be able to travel to university for studies. She studied with Karl Weierstrass at the University of Berlin and received her Ph.D. in 1874 from the University of Göttingen. She went on to lecture at the University of Stockholm, where she received tenure. During her years at Stockholm, she carried out what many consider her most important research. She taught courses on the latest topics in analysis and became an editor of the new journal Acta Mathematica. The topic of the 1886 Prix Bordin of the French Academy of Sciences was for significant contributions to the problem of the study of rigid body. Sophia entered and won. In recognition of the brilliance of this work, the prize money was raised from 3,000 to 5,000 francs.
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December 2001 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Martin Luther February King Jr.’s Birthday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 27 28 29 30 31 New Moon F irst Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu www.math.uiuc.edu 2002
Johann P. G. Lejeune Dirichlet Born February 13, 1805 in Düren, French Empire (now Germany) Died May 5, 1859 in Göttingen, Hanover (now Germany)
Even before Dirichlet entered the Gymnasium in Bonn in 1817, at the age of 12, he had developed a passion for mathematics and spent his pocket- money on buying mathematics books. After two years at the Gymnasium in Bonn, his parents decided they would rather he attend the Jesuit College in Cologne where he had the good fortune to be taught by Ohm. At age 16, he decided to study in Paris. His first paper in 1825 was to bring him instant fame since it concerned the famous Fermat’s Last Theorem. Dirichlet is also well known for his papers on conditions for the convergence of trigonometric series and the use of the series to represent arbitrary functions. These series had been used previously by Fourier in solving differential equations. Because of this work, Dirichlet is considered the founder of the theory of Fourier series.
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Lincoln's Birthday St. Valentine's Day
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March President's Day Washington's 1 2 Birthday 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 24 25 26 27 28 New Moon First Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu www.math.uiuc.edu 2002
Emmy Amalie Noether Born March 23, 1882 in Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany Died April 14, 1935 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
In 1900 Noether became a certificated teacher of English and French in Bavarian girls schools. However, Noether never became a language teacher. Women were allowed to study at German universities unofficially and she attended the University of Erlangen during 1900-1902. Having passed the matriculation examination in Nürnberg in 1903, she went to the University of Göttingen and studied with Blumenthal, Hilbert, Klein and Minkowski. In 1907 she was granted a doctorate after working under Paul Gordan. It was her work in the theory of invariants which led to formulations for several concepts of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. At Göttingen, after 1919, Noether moved away from invariant theory to work on ideal theory, producing an abstract theory which helped develop ring theory into a major mathematical topic. She moved to the U.S. in 1933 to teach at Bryn Mawr College.
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April St. Patrick's Day Vernal Equinox 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 New Moon First Quarter Palm Full Moon L ast Quarter Sunday
Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu 31 First Day of Good Friday www.math.uiuc.edu Easter Passover 2002
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss Born April 30, 1777 in Brunswick, Duchy of Brunswick (now Germany) Died February 23, 1855 in Göttingen, Hanover (now Germany)
Gauss entered Brunswick Collegium Carolinum in 1792 where he independently discovered Bode’s law, the binomial theorem and the arithmetic-geometric means inequality, as well as the law of quadratic reciprocity and the prime number theorem. In 1795 he studied at Göttingen University, where he discovered the construction of a regular 17-gon by ruler and compasses––one of the most major advances in constructive geometry since the time of Greek mathematics. After receiving a degree from Brunswick in 1799, he became the director of the Göttingen Observatory in 1807. He showed how to estimate and then refine the estimation of a planet’s orbit. A six-year work period with physicist Wilhelm Weber produced discovery of Kirchhoff’s laws; they also built a primitive telegraph device which could send messages over a distance of 5000 feet and investigated the theory of terrestrial magnetism. Using the Laplace equation to aid him with his calculations, Gauss ended up specifying a location for the magnetic South pole. He continued his career over the next 50 years, becoming recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians and scientists the world has ever known.
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Earth Day May 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 28 29 30 New Moon First Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu www.math.uiuc.edu 2002 John Charles Fields Born May 14, 1863 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Died August 9, 1932 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
John Fields received his B.A. in mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1884. After a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University, Fields was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Allegheny College in 1889. However, from 1892 Fields studied in Europe with Fuchs, Frobenius, Hensel, Schwarz and Planck. In 1902 Fields was appointed to the position of lecturer at the University of Toronto where he remained until his death. His main research topic was on algebraic functions. In 1924 the International Congress of Mathematicians was held at Toronto and Fields was honored by being President of the Congress. Fields is best remembered for conceiving the idea of, and for providing funds for, an international medal for mathematical distinction. Adopted at the International Congress of Mathematicians at Zurich in 1932, the first medals were awarded at the Oslo Congress of 1936. Field’s Medals are awarded to no fewer than two and no more than four mathematicians under 40 years of age every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians. The awards recognize both work completed and point to the potential for future achievement.
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June 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 31 New Moon First Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter
Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu Memorial Day www.math.uiuc.edu (observed) 2002
Siméon Denis Poisson Born June 21, 1781 in Pithiviers, France Died April 25, 1840 in Sceaux (near Paris), France
Originally forced to study medicine, Siméon Poisson began to study mathematics in 1798 at the Ecole Polytechnique with Laplace and Lagrange. Poisson taught at Ecole Polytechnique from 1802 until 1808 when he became an astronomer at Bureau des Longitudes. In 1809 he was appointed to the chair of pure mathematics in the newly open Faculté des Sciences. His most important works were a series of papers on definite integrals and his advances in Fourier series. He published between 300 and 400 mathematical works including applications to electricity and magnetism, and astronomy. His name is attached to a wide area of ideas, for example: Poisson's integral, Poisson's equation in potential theory, Poisson brackets in differential equations, Poisson's ratio in elasticity, and Poisson's constant in electricity.
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Flag Day
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May 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
July Father's Day Summer Solstice 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 New Moon First Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter
Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu 30 www.math.uiuc.edu 2002
Johann Bernoulli Born July 27, 1667 in Basel, Switzerland Died January 1, 1748 in Basel, Switzerland
Bernoulli's doctoral dissertation was on a topic in medicine, but it was really on an application of mathematics to medicine, being on muscular movement. It was submitted in 1694 at the University of Basel. He attained great fame in his lifetime. He was elected a fellow of the academies of Paris, Berlin, London, St. Petersburg and Bologna. He was known as the "Archimedes of his age" and this is indeed inscribed on his tombstone.
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August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 28 29 30 31 New Moon First Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu www.math.uiuc.edu 2002 Pierre de Fermat Born August 17, 1601 in Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France Died January 12, 1665 in Castres, France
Fermat attended the University of Toulouse before moving to Bordeaux in the second half of the 1620s. In Bordeaux he began his first serious mathematical researches and in 1629 he gave a copy of his restoration of Apollonius's Plane loci to one of the mathematicians there. During this time he produced important work on maxima and minima. From Bordeaux, Fermat went to Orléans where he studied law at the University. He received a degree in civil law and held appointments in the parliament in Toulouse. His reputation as one of the leading mathematicians in the world came quickly, but attempts to get his work published failed mainly because Fermat never really wanted to put his work into a polished form. Fermat is best remembered for his work in number theory, in particular for Fermat's Last Theorem. Unsuccessful attempts to prove the theorem over a 300 year period led to the discovery of commutative ring theory and a wealth of other mathematical discoveries. Fermat’s Last Theorem has just recently become a theorem with the research of Andrew Wiles and Richard Taylor.
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Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu www.math.uiuc.edu 2002
Winifred Edgerton Merrill Born September 24, 1862 in Ripon, Wisconsin Died September 6, 1951 in New York City, New York
Winifred Edgerton was the first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics. She received her B.S. degree from Wellesley College in 1883 and her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1886 with the highest honors. Her thesis dealt with geometric interpretations of multiple integrals and translations and relations of various systems of coordinates. Merrill was a member of a committee that petitioned Columbia University for the founding of Barnard College in 1889, New York’s first secular institution to award women the liberal arts degree. She taught mathematics at various institutions for several years after her graduation from Columbia. In 1906 she founded Oaksmere School for Girls which she directed until 1928. A branch of the school was established in Paris in 1912. “She opened the door” is the inscription on a portrait of Merrill that hangs in an academic building on Columbia’s campus.
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Labor Day Rosh Hashanah
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Yom Kippur
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Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu www.math.uiuc.edu 2002
Hypatia of Alexandria Born about 370 in Alexandria, Egypt Died March 415 in Alexandria, Egypt
Hypatia of Alexandria was the first woman known to have made a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics. It is fairly certain that she studied mathematics under the instruction of her father, mathematician and philosopher Theon of Alexandria. She became head of the Platonist school at Alexandria in about 400 AD. There she lectured on mathematics and philosophy. There is no evidence that Hypatia undertook original mathematical research. However, she assisted her father in writing his eleven part commentary on Ptolemy's Almagest. She also assisted him in producing a new version of Euclid's Elements which has become the basis for all later editions of Euclid. Hypatia came to symbolize learning and science which some people in this period identified with paganism. There are varying accounts of her death, but it seems indisputable that she was murdered by those who felt threatened by her scholarship, learning and depth of scientific knowledge.
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November 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 27 28 29 30 31 New Moon First Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter
Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu Daylight Savings Halloween www.math.uiuc.edu Time ends 2002
August Ferdinand Möbius Born November 17, 1790 in Schulpforta, Saxony (now Germany) Died September 26, 1868 in Leipzig, Germany
In 1815 Möbius wrote his doctoral thesis on The Occultation of Fixed Stars and his Habilitation thesis on Trigonometrical Equations. Almost all Möbius's work was published in Crelle's Journal, the first journal devoted exclusively to publishing mathematics. His 1827 work on analytical geometry became a classic and includes many of his results on projective and affine geometry. He introduced a configuration now called a Möbius net, which was to play an important role in the development of projective geometry. Möbius’s interest in topological ideas is an area in which he is most remembered as a pioneer.
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Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu Thanksgiving Day Hanukkah www.math.uiuc.edu 2002 Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan Born December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu state, India Died April 26, 1920 in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu state, India
Ramanujan was one of India's greatest mathematical geniuses. He made substantial contributions to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series. On the strength of his good school work, he was given a scholarship to the Government College in Kumbakonam which he entered in 1904. In 1906 Ramanujan went to Madras where he entered Pachaiyappa’s College. After publication of a brilliant research paper on Bernoulli numbers in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society, he gained recognition for his work. He graduated from Cambridge in 1916 with a Bachelor of Science by Research (the degree was called a Ph.D. beginning in 1920). The picture at left is taken from a stamp issued by the Indian Post Office in 1962 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of his birth.
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January 2003 Winter Solstice Christmas Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 29 30 31 New Moon First Quarter Full Moon L ast Quarter
Department of Mathematics University of Illinois at U-C 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 (217)333-3350 office @math.uiuc.edu www.math.uiuc.edu 2002