Wolfgang Gröbner (11 February 1899 – 20 August 1980) was an Austrian mathematician. His name is best known for the Gröbner basis, used for computations in algebraic geometry. However, the theory of Gröbner bases for polynomial rings was developed by his student Bruno Buchberger in 1965, who named them for Gröbner. Gröbner is also known for the Alekseev-Gröbner formula, which was actually proven by him.

Wolfgang Gröbner
Wolfgang Gröbner
Born(1899-02-11)11 February 1899
Died20 August 1980(1980-08-20) (aged 81)
NationalityAustrian
Alma materUniversity of Vienna
AwardsWilhelm Exner Medal (1969)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Innsbruck
Doctoral advisorPhilipp Furtwängler
Doctoral studentsBruno Buchberger
Gerhard Wanner

Early life

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Gröbner was born in Gossensaß, which at that time was in part of the County of Tyrol of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is now part of Italy.

Gröbner first studied engineering at the University of Technology in Graz, Austria, but switched in 1929 to mathematics.

Career

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He wrote his dissertation Ein Beitrag zum Problem der Minimalbasen in 1932 at the University of Vienna; his advisor was Philipp Furtwängler. After his promotion, he did further studies at the University of Göttingen under Emmy Noether, in what is now known as commutative algebra. Later he contributed with his students to numerical analysis of ordinary differential equations and the industrial applications of Lie-theoretic methods, including a book on Lie series.[1]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ Gröbner, Wolfgang; Knapp, H. (1967). Contributions to the Method of Lie Series. Germany: BibliographischesInstitut.
  2. ^ Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.