Hermann Weyl

Hermann Weyl (November 9 1885 - December 8 1955) was a German mathematician. Although much of his working life was spent in Zürich and then Princeton, he is closely identified with the University of Göttingen tradition of mathematics, represented by David Hilbert and Hermann Minkowski. His research has had major significance for theoretical physics as well as pure disciplines including number theory. He was one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century, and a key member of the Institute for Advanced Study in its early years, in terms of creating an integrated and international view.

Later career

In 1928 and 1929, he was a visiting professor at Princeton University.

Related Topics:
1928 - 1929 - Princeton University

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Weyl left the professorship at the Technische Hochschule in Zürich, Switzerland, in the year of 1930 and he became Hilbert's successor at Göttingen where he held the chair of mathematics. The rise of the National Socialism in Germany in 1933, resulted in Weyl accepting an offer of going to the Institute for Advanced Study; Weyl's wife Hella (nee Joseph) was Jewish and subject to the Nazi racial legislation.

Related Topics:
Göttingen - National Socialism - Germany - 1933 - Institute for Advanced Study

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There at Princeton he worked with Einstein. Weyl researched a unification of gravitation and electromagnetism. Weyl tried to incorporate electromagnetism in the geometrical formalism of general relativity.

Related Topics:
Einstein - Unification - Gravitation - Electromagnetism - General relativity

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Weyl's research was the framework for later explanations of the violation of nonconservation of parity, a characteristic of weak interactions between leptons, in particle physics.

Related Topics:
Nonconservation - Parity - Weak interactions - Lepton - Particle physics

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Weyl worked at the IAS until retirement in 1952. He died in Zürich, Switzerland.

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