Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Meyer (1856–1934) was a German mathematician and one of the main editors of the Encyclopädie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften.

Wilhelm Franz Meyer
Born(1856-09-02)2 September 1856
Died11 June 1934(1934-06-11) (aged 77)
EducationLeipzig University
University of Munich
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Tübingen
Bergakademie of Clausthal
University of Königsberg
ThesisAnwendungen der Topologie auf die Gestalten der algebraischen Curven, speciell der rationalen Curven 4. und 5. Ordnung (1878)

Life and work

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Meyer studied in the universities of Leipzig and Munich. In 1878, he was awarded a doctorate by Munich. He studied further in Berlin under Weierstrass, Kummer and Kronecker. In 1880, he got the venia legendi at the University of Tübingen. In 1888, he became a full professor at the Bergakademie of Clausthal (today Clausthal University of Technology). From October 1897 until October 1924, when he retired, he taught at the University of Königsberg.[1]

The wide research work of Meyer (more than 130 papers) is centred basically on geometry and, specifically, on invariant theory.[2]

Notwithstanding he is mainly known for he was one of the main editors[3] of the Encyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften published from 1898 to 1933 in 23 separate books. Meyer was directly in charge to edit the geometry volumes.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Burau 2008, p. Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
  2. ^ Parshall 1990, pp. 13–15.
  3. ^ Gray 2008, p. 116.
  4. ^ de Siqueira 2015, p. 36.

Bibliography

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  • de Siqueira, Rogerio Monteiro (2015). "Editing geometries: The geometry volumes in Klein's encyclopedia". Circumscribere. 15: 35–47. ISSN 1980-7651.
  • Gray, Jeremy (2008). Plato's Ghost: The Modernist Transformation of Mathematics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13610-3.
  • Parshall, Karen V. H. (1990). "The one-hundredth anniversary of the death of invariant theory?". The Mathematical Intelligencer. 12 (4): 10–16. doi:10.1007/BF03024027. ISSN 0343-6993. S2CID 117771242.
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