DOCSLIB.ORG

Chern, Shiing-Shen ( 191 1-2004) Cartan's Papers and Working on Problems They Had Discussed in Paris

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chern, Shiing-Shen ( 191 1-2004) Cartan's Papers and Working on Problems They Had Discussed in Paris 206 I Chern, Shiing-Shen References Chern was hired as a professor of mathematics at Marquez, Letisia. 2010. "Obituary: Lucie Cheng, 70, fonner Qinghua University, which moved from Beijing first director of UCLA Asian American Studies Center." to Changsha and then to Kunming in southern China UCLA Newsroom (February 8). to escape the advancing Japanese army. At Kunming, "UCLA Asian American Studies Center Pays Tribute to Qinghuajoined Beijing University and Nan.kaito form Lucie Cheng, Pioneering Transpacific Scholar." 2010. UCLA Asian American Studies Center (Feb,uary 5). the Southwest Associated University (SAU) for the Woo, Elaine. 2010. "Lucie Cheng Dies at 70; Sociologist rest of the war years. There, in 1939, Chern manied 'Revolutionized' Asian American Studies." Los Zheng Shining, who had studied biology and who Angeles Times (February 16). was the daughter of another mathematics professor Zheng Zhifan at Qinghua. Wartime isolation cut off much of Chern's contact with the outside world, but he was able to continue his research by studying Chern, Shiing-Shen ( 191 1-2004) Cartan's papers and working on problems they had discussed in Paris. His own publications in this period Shiing-Shen Chern was one of the most prominent not only established him as a leading mathematician in mathematicians in the world in the twentieth century, China but also attracted international attention. In a pioneer especially in the field of differential geom­ 1943, Chernreceived an invitation to visit the famed etry, and an influential leader of the Chinese American Institute for Advanced Study in Princeto n in the scientificcommunity. He made major contributions to United States. the development of mathematics and science in China The two years Chern spent in Princeton (1943- and the United States as well as strengthening the sci­ 1945) represented the most productive in his life. entificrelations between the two countries before his Building on his profoundunderstanding of mathemati­ death in 2004. cal problems and on discussions with other leading Shiing-Shen Chern was born in Jiaxing, a scenic mathematicians, Chem made two of the most original town in Zhejiang provincein southern China, on Octo­ and influential contributions to modem mathematics. ber 26, 1911, which fell amid a republican revolution First, he discovered an "intrinsic proof' of the general­ that overthrew the thousands-year-old imperial system. ized Gauss-Bonnet theorem. The classical theorem Chem's father, Chen Baozhen, was a classically trained gives a formula that governs the relationship of geo­ Confucian scholar who later became a civil servant. metric properties of a closed, two-dimensional Rie­ Chem learned Chinese and mathematic s at home until mannian manifold (a region on a curved surface). 1920 when he enrolled in a middle school. Two years Chem' s work not only provided a proof of the theorem later, he went with his fatherto Tianjin in northern China that was superior to earlier proofs, it also opened the and became interested in mathematics as a student in the possibility to generalize the theorem to higher dimen­ Fulun Middle School there. In 1926, Chem enrolled at sions. It was a monumental achievement and Chem the new Nankai University in Tianjin. A course with later viewed it as his best piece of work. Then, capital­ Jiang Lifu, a Harvard-trained mathematician, got Chem izi ng on insights from this work, Chern developed interested in geometry. Upon graduation from Nankai what became known as the "Chern characteristic in 1930, Chem first went to Qinghua (Tsinghua) Univer­ classes," powerful analytical tools to classify so­ sity in Beijing, where he received a master's degree in called fiber bundles, a fundamental object of study in 1934, and then to the University of Hamburg, differential geometry. Mathematically simple and Germany, where he finished his PhD dissertation on elegant, Chern's two discoveries together marked a the applications of the great French mathematician Elie turning point in the development of modern differen­ Cartan's theories in differential geometry. Chem spent tial geometry. a fruitful year with Cartan himself in Paris before At the end of World War II in 1945, Chern returning to China on July 10, J 937, just days after the returned to China to be acting director of the new Japanese invaded China. Institute of Mathematics of the Academia Sinica, Cheung, King-Kok I 207 sponsored by the ationalist government, at first in Ever since the reestablishment of U.S.-China relations Shanghai and then in anjing. In late 1948, however, in the early 1970s, Chern had been active in promoting the ationalists began to lose control of mainland scientific exchanges between the two countries. China to the Communists in a civil war and the Insti­ Because of his and Yau's efforts, Beijing was made tute of Mathematics faced an uncertain future. Once host to the 2002 International Congress of Mathemati­ again Princeton came to Chern ' s rescue. J. Robert cians. In 2000, when his wife of more than 60 years Oppenheimer, the physicist who had spearheaded the died, Chem moved to a residence built forhim in the making of the atomic bomb during World War II and ankai Institute where he continued to be active in who was now director of the Princeton institute, mathematical teaching and research. Chern died on invited Chern to return and he accepted. Chernbrought December 3, 2004, in his Nankai home in Tianjin. along his wife, son Bolong, and daughter Pu (who later Zuoyue Wang became a physicist and married the well-known See also Yau, Shing-Tong Chinese American physicist Paul Ching Wu Chu) when departingfor the United States on December 31, 1948. References Chern's coming to the United States in 1949 fos­ Chang, Kenneth. 2004. "Shiing-Shen Chern,93, Innovator tered a renaissance of differential geometry in the in Geometry, Dies." December 7, country. After a half-year stay at Princeton, he took 2004. up a professorship in mathematics at the University of Jackson, Allyn. 1998. "InterviewNew York with TimShiines,g Shen Chem." Chicago and helped make it into a new center of math­ 45 (August): 860-865. ematics in the world. During this period Chern also Yau,No S. ticesT., ed. of 19 the98. Ame S. S.rican Mathematical Society had a chance to work with the Chinese American Expanded ed. Cambridge, MA: physicist Chen ing Yang, one of his formerstudents International Press. Chern:A Great Geometer of the at Kunmin g, wit--------h whom---- he---- would later share the Twentieth Century. Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. In 1960, after a decade at Chicago, Chern moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he Cheung, King-Kok ( 1954-) trained dozens of doctoral students, including the Chinese American mathematician Shing Tung Yau King-Kok Cheung is a literary critic specializing in who would later win the coveted Fields Medal, and Asian American literature and a professorof English mentored numerous postdocs. Chern was naturalized at the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA). as a U.S. citizen and elected a member of the U.S. Her areas of expertise include Asian American litera­ National Academy of Sciences in 1961. He received ture, comparative American ethnic literatures, compa­ the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1975 and the rative heroic traditions, and renaissance British prestigious Wolf Prize in mathematics in 1983. Chem literature. She is also the associate editor of Signs: contin ued to be productive even after retiring from Journal of Women in Culture and Society and coeditor Berkeley in 1979. In 1981, he helped found and of The Heath Anthology of American Literature. became the firstdir ector of the National Science Foun­ Cheung has received numerous awards, including fe l­ dation-sponsored Mathematical Sciences Research lowships from the AmericanCouncil of Learned Soci­ Institute (MSRI) at Berkeley, a position he held eties, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center until 1984. for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at "Retiring" once again in 1984 from the MSRI, Stan ford Uni versity, and the Chinese American Litera­ Chern shifted his effort to a new endeavor: the found­ ture Research Center at Beijing Foreign Studies Uni­ ing and operation of the Mathematical Institute at Nan­ versity. She has received a Fulbright Lecturi ng and kai University, his alma mater in Tianjin, China, and Research Award, and two Fulbright Senior Specialist the development of mathematics in China in general. Awards. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A MATHEMATICIAN's SURVIVAL GUIDE 1. an Algebra Teacher I
    A MATHEMATICIAN’S SURVIVAL GUIDE PETER G. CASAZZA 1. An Algebra Teacher I could Understand Emmy award-winning journalist and bestselling author Cokie Roberts once said: As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school. 1.1. An Object of Pride. Mathematician’s relationship with the general public most closely resembles “bipolar” disorder - at the same time they admire us and hate us. Almost everyone has had at least one bad experience with mathematics during some part of their education. Get into any taxi and tell the driver you are a mathematician and the response is predictable. First, there is silence while the driver relives his greatest nightmare - taking algebra. Next, you will hear the immortal words: “I was never any good at mathematics.” My response is: “I was never any good at being a taxi driver so I went into mathematics.” You can learn a lot from taxi drivers if you just don’t tell them you are a mathematician. Why get started on the wrong foot? The mathematician David Mumford put it: “I am accustomed, as a professional mathematician, to living in a sort of vacuum, surrounded by people who declare with an odd sort of pride that they are mathematically illiterate.” 1.2. A Balancing Act. The other most common response we get from the public is: “I can’t even balance my checkbook.” This reflects the fact that the public thinks that mathematics is basically just adding numbers. They have no idea what we really do. Because of the textbooks they studied, they think that all needed mathematics has already been discovered.
    [Show full text]
  • The "Greatest European Mathematician of the Middle Ages"
    Who was Fibonacci? The "greatest European mathematician of the middle ages", his full name was Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Pisano in Italian since he was born in Pisa (Italy), the city with the famous Leaning Tower, about 1175 AD. Pisa was an important commercial town in its day and had links with many Mediterranean ports. Leonardo's father, Guglielmo Bonacci, was a kind of customs officer in the North African town of Bugia now called Bougie where wax candles were exported to France. They are still called "bougies" in French, but the town is a ruin today says D E Smith (see below). So Leonardo grew up with a North African education under the Moors and later travelled extensively around the Mediterranean coast. He would have met with many merchants and learned of their systems of doing arithmetic. He soon realised the many advantages of the "Hindu-Arabic" system over all the others. D E Smith points out that another famous Italian - St Francis of Assisi (a nearby Italian town) - was also alive at the same time as Fibonacci: St Francis was born about 1182 (after Fibonacci's around 1175) and died in 1226 (before Fibonacci's death commonly assumed to be around 1250). By the way, don't confuse Leonardo of Pisa with Leonardo da Vinci! Vinci was just a few miles from Pisa on the way to Florence, but Leonardo da Vinci was born in Vinci in 1452, about 200 years after the death of Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci). His names Fibonacci Leonardo of Pisa is now known as Fibonacci [pronounced fib-on-arch-ee] short for filius Bonacci.
    [Show full text]
  • The Astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler
    Ice Core Records – From Volcanoes to Supernovas The Astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler Tycho Brahe (1546-1601, shown at left) was a nobleman from Denmark who made astronomy his life's work because he was so impressed when, as a boy, he saw an eclipse of the Sun take place at exactly the time it was predicted. Tycho's life's work in astronomy consisted of measuring the positions of the stars, planets, Moon, and Sun, every night and day possible, and carefully recording these measurements, year after year. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630, below right) came from a poor German family. He did not have it easy growing Tycho Brahe up. His father was a soldier, who was killed in a war, and his mother (who was once accused of witchcraft) did not treat him well. Kepler was taken out of school when he was a boy so that he could make money for the family by working as a waiter in an inn. As a young man Kepler studied theology and science, and discovered that he liked science better. He became an accomplished mathematician and a persistent and determined calculator. He was driven to find an explanation for order in the universe. He was convinced that the order of the planets and their movement through the sky could be explained through mathematical calculation and careful thinking. Johannes Kepler Tycho wanted to study science so that he could learn how to predict eclipses. He studied mathematics and astronomy in Germany. Then, in 1571, when he was 25, Tycho built his own observatory on an island (the King of Denmark gave him the island and some additional money just for that purpose).
    [Show full text]
  • Transnational Mathematics and Movements: Shiing- Shen Chern, Hua Luogeng, and the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study from World War II to the Cold War1
    Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology 3 (2), 118–165 (2019) doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1461.2019.02118 Transnational Mathematics and Movements: Shiing- shen Chern, Hua Luogeng, and the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study from World War II to the Cold War1 Zuoyue Wang 王作跃,2 Guo Jinhai 郭金海3 (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 91768, US; Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China) Abstract: This paper reconstructs, based on American and Chinese primary sources, the visits of Chinese mathematicians Shiing-shen Chern 陈省身 (Chen Xingshen) and Hua Luogeng 华罗庚 (Loo-Keng Hua)4 to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in the United States in the 1940s, especially their interactions with Oswald Veblen and Hermann Weyl, two leading mathematicians at the IAS. It argues that Chern’s and Hua’s motivations and choices in regard to their transnational movements between China and the US were more nuanced and multifaceted than what is presented in existing accounts, and that socio-political factors combined with professional-personal ones to shape their decisions. The paper further uses their experiences to demonstrate the importance of transnational scientific interactions for the development of science in China, the US, and elsewhere in the twentieth century. Keywords: Shiing-shen Chern, Chen Xingshen, Hua Luogeng, Loo-Keng Hua, Institute for 1 This article was copy-edited by Charlie Zaharoff. 2 Research interests: History of science and technology in the United States, China, and transnational contexts in the twentieth century. He is currently writing a book on the history of American-educated Chinese scientists and China-US scientific relations.
    [Show full text]
  • Newton.Indd | Sander Pinkse Boekproductie | 16-11-12 / 14:45 | Pag
    omslag Newton.indd | Sander Pinkse Boekproductie | 16-11-12 / 14:45 | Pag. 1 e Dutch Republic proved ‘A new light on several to be extremely receptive to major gures involved in the groundbreaking ideas of Newton Isaac Newton (–). the reception of Newton’s Dutch scholars such as Willem work.’ and the Netherlands Jacob ’s Gravesande and Petrus Prof. Bert Theunissen, Newton the Netherlands and van Musschenbroek played a Utrecht University crucial role in the adaption and How Isaac Newton was Fashioned dissemination of Newton’s work, ‘is book provides an in the Dutch Republic not only in the Netherlands important contribution to but also in the rest of Europe. EDITED BY ERIC JORINK In the course of the eighteenth the study of the European AND AD MAAS century, Newton’s ideas (in Enlightenment with new dierent guises and interpre- insights in the circulation tations) became a veritable hype in Dutch society. In Newton of knowledge.’ and the Netherlands Newton’s Prof. Frans van Lunteren, sudden success is analyzed in Leiden University great depth and put into a new perspective. Ad Maas is curator at the Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, the Netherlands. Eric Jorink is researcher at the Huygens Institute for Netherlands History (Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences). / www.lup.nl LUP Newton and the Netherlands.indd | Sander Pinkse Boekproductie | 16-11-12 / 16:47 | Pag. 1 Newton and the Netherlands Newton and the Netherlands.indd | Sander Pinkse Boekproductie | 16-11-12 / 16:47 | Pag. 2 Newton and the Netherlands.indd | Sander Pinkse Boekproductie | 16-11-12 / 16:47 | Pag.
    [Show full text]
  • Famous Mathematicians Key
    Infinite Secrets AIRING SEPTEMBER 30, 2003 Learning More Dzielska, Maria. Famous Mathematicians Hypatia of Alexandria. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University The history of mathematics spans thousands of years and touches all parts of the Press, 1996. world. Likewise, the notable mathematicians of the past and present are equally Provides a biography of Hypatia based diverse.The following are brief biographies of three mathematicians who stand out on several sources,including the letters for their contributions to the fields of geometry and calculus. of Hypatia’s student Synesius. Hypatia of Alexandria Bhaskara wrote numerous papers and Biographies of Women Mathematicians books on such topics as plane and spherical (c. A.D. 370–415 ) www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/ Born in Alexandria, trigonometry, algebra, and the mathematics women.htm of planetary motion. His most famous work, Contains biographical essays and Egypt, around A.D. 370, Siddhanta Siromani, was written in A.D. comments on woman mathematicians, Hypatia was the first 1150. It is divided into four parts: “Lilavati” including Hypatia. Also includes documented female (arithmetic), “Bijaganita” (algebra), resources for further study. mathematician. She was ✷ ✷ ✷ the daughter of Theon, “Goladhyaya” (celestial globe), and a mathematician who “Grahaganita” (mathematics of the planets). Patwardhan, K. S., S. A. Naimpally, taught at the school at the Alexandrine Like Archimedes, Bhaskara discovered and S. L. Singh. Library. She studied astronomy, astrology, several principles of what is now calculus Lilavati of Bhaskaracharya. centuries before it was invented. Also like Delhi, India:Motilal Banarsidass, 2001. and mathematics under the guidance of her Archimedes, Bhaskara was fascinated by the Explains the definitions, formulae, father.She became head of the Platonist concepts of infinity and square roots.
    [Show full text]
  • Professor Shiing Shen CHERN Citation
    ~~____~__~~Doctor_~______ of Science honoris cau5a _-___ ____ Professor Shiing Shen CHERN Citation “Not willing to yield to the saints of ancient mathematics. In his own words, his objective is and modem times / He alone ascends the towering to bring about a situation in which “Chinese height.” This verse, written by Professor Wu-zhi mathematics is placed on a par with Western Yang, the father of Nobel Laureate in Physics mathematics and is independent of the latter. That Professor Chen-Ning Yang, to Professor Shiing Shen is, Chinese mathematics must be on the same level CHERN, fully reflects the high achievements as its Western counterpart, though not necessarily attained by Professor Chern during a career that bending its efforts in the same direction.” has spanned over 70 years. Professor Chern was born in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Professor Chern has dedicated his life to the Province in 1911, and displayed considerable study of mathematics. In his early thirties, he mathematical talent even as a child. In 1930, after realized the importance of fiber bundle structure. graduating from the Department of Mathematics From an entirely new perspective, he provided a at Nankai University, he was admitted to the simple intrinsic proof of the Gauss-Bonnet Formula graduate school of Tsinghua University. In 1934, 24 and constructed the “Chern Characteristic Classes”, he received funding to study in Hamburg under thus laying a solid foundation for the study of global the great master of geometry Professor W Blaschke, differential geometry as a whole. and completed his doctoral dissertation in less than a year.
    [Show full text]
  • An Outstanding Mathematician Sergei Ivanovich Adian Passed Away on May 5, 2020 in Moscow at the Age of 89
    An outstanding mathematician Sergei Ivanovich Adian passed away on May 5, 2020 in Moscow at the age of 89. He was the head of the Department of Mathematical Logic at Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 1975) and Professor of the Department of Mathematical Logic and Theory of Algorithms at the Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty of Moscow M.V. Lomonosov State University (since 1965). Sergei Adian is famous for his work in the area of computational problems in algebra and mathematical logic. Among his numerous contributions two major results stand out. The first one is the Adian—Rabin Theorem (1955) on algorithmic unrecognizability of a wide class of group-theoretic properties when the group is given by finitely many generators and relators. Natural properties covered by this theorem include those of a group being trivial, finite, periodic, and many others. A simpler proof of the same result was obtained by Michael Rabin in 1958. Another seminal contribution of Sergei Adian is his solution, together with his teacher Petr Novikov, of the famous Burnside problem on periodic groups posed in 1902. The deluding simplicity of its formulation fascinated and attracted minds of mathematicians for decades. Is every finitely generated periodic group of a fixed exponent n necessarily finite? Novikov—Adian Theorem (1968) states that for sufficiently large odd numbers n this is not the case. By a heroic effort, in 1968 Sergei Adian finished the solution of Burnside problem initiated by his teacher Novikov, having overcome in its course exceptional technical difficulties. Their proof was arguably one of the most difficult proofs in the whole history of Mathematics.
    [Show full text]
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Papers, 1646-1716
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt2779p48t No online items Finding Aid for the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Papers, 1646-1716 Processed by David MacGill; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé © 2003 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Finding Aid for the Gottfried 503 1 Wilhelm Leibniz Papers, 1646-1716 Finding Aid for the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Papers, 1646-1716 Collection number: 503 UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Manuscripts Division Los Angeles, CA Processed by: David MacGill, November 1992 Encoded by: Caroline Cubé Online finding aid edited by: Josh Fiala, October 2003 © 2003 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Papers, Date (inclusive): 1646-1716 Collection number: 503 Creator: Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716 Extent: 6 oversize boxes Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Dept. of Special Collections. Los Angeles, California 90095-1575 Abstract: Leibniz (1646-1716) was a philosopher, mathematician, and political advisor. He invented differential and integral calculus. His major writings include New physical hypothesis (1671), Discourse on metaphysics (1686), On the ultimate origin of things (1697), and On nature itself (1698). The collection consists of 35 reels of positive microfilm of more than 100,000 handwritten pages of manuscripts and letters. Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information. Language: English. Restrictions on Use and Reproduction Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections.
    [Show full text]
  • A Mathematician's Lament
    A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds himself in a society where A music education has been made mandatory. “We are helping our students become more competitive in an increasingly sound-filled world.” Educators, school systems, and the state are put in charge of this vital project. Studies are commissioned, committees are formed, and decisions are made— all without the advice or participation of a single working musician or composer. Since musicians are known to set down their ideas in the form of sheet music, these curious black dots and lines must constitute the “language of music.” It is imperative that students become fluent in this language if they are to attain any degree of musical competence; indeed, it would be ludicrous to expect a child to sing a song or play an instrument without having a thorough grounding in music notation and theory. Playing and listening to music, let alone composing an original piece, are considered very advanced topics and are generally put off until college, and more often graduate school. As for the primary and secondary schools, their mission is to train students to use this language— to jiggle symbols around according to a fixed set of rules: “Music class is where we take out our staff paper, our teacher puts some notes on the board, and we copy them or transpose them into a different key. We have to make sure to get the clefs and key signatures right, and our teacher is very picky about making sure we fill in our quarter-notes completely.
    [Show full text]
  • Brochure on Careers in Applied Mathematics
    careers in applied mathematics Options for STEM Majors society for industrial and applied mathematics 2 / careers in applied mathematics Mathematics and computational science are utilized in almost every discipline of science, engineering, industry, and technology. New application areas are WHERE CAN YOU WHAT KINDS OF PROBLEMS MIGHT YOU WORK ON? constantly being discovered MAKE AN IMPACT? While careers in mathematics may differ widely by discipline while established techniques Many different types and job title, one thing remains constant among them— are being applied in new of organizations hire problem solving. Some potential problems that someone with ways and in emerging fields. mathematicians and mathematical training might encounter are described below. Consequently, a wide variety computational scientists. Which of them do you find most intriguing, and why? of career opportunities You can easily search the • How can an airline use smarter scheduling to reduce costs of are open to people with websites of organizations and aircraft parking and engine maintenance? Or smarter pricing mathematical talent and corporations that interest to maximize profit? training. you to learn more about their • How can one design a detailed plan for a clinical trial? Building such a plan requires advanced statistical skills and In this guide, you will find answers to sophisticated knowledge of the design of experiments. questions about careers in applied mathematics • Is ethanol a viable solution for the world’s dependence and computational science, and profiles on fossil fuels? Can biofuel production be optimized to of professionals working in a variety of combat negative implications on the world’s economy and environment? environments for which a strong background • How do we use major advances in computing power to in mathematics is necessary for success.
    [Show full text]
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
    Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) • His father, a professor of Philosophy, died when he was small, and he was brought up by his mother. • He learnt Latin at school in Leipzig, but taught himself much more and also taught himself some Greek, possibly because he wanted to read his father’s books. • He studied law and logic at Leipzig University from the age of fourteen – which was not exceptionally young for that time. • His Ph D thesis “De Arte Combinatoria” was completed in 1666 at the University of Altdorf. He was offered a chair there but turned it down. • He then met, and worked for, Baron von Boineburg (at one stage prime minister in the government of Mainz), as a secretary, librarian and lawyer – and was also a personal friend. • Over the years he earned his living mainly as a lawyer and diplomat, working at different times for the states of Mainz, Hanover and Brandenburg. • But he is famous as a mathematician and philosopher. • By his own account, his interest in mathematics developed quite late. • An early interest was mechanics. – He was interested in the works of Huygens and Wren on collisions. – He published Hypothesis Physica Nova in 1671. The hypothesis was that motion depends on the action of a spirit ( a hypothesis shared by Kepler– but not Newton). – At this stage he was already communicating with scientists in London and in Paris. (Over his life he had around 600 scientific correspondents, all over the world.) – He met Huygens in Paris in 1672, while on a political mission, and started working with him.
    [Show full text]