University of Freiburg
Who did Oskar Bolza work for from 1910 to 1933?
Oskar Bolza Oskar Bolza ( 12 May 1857 – 5 July 1942 ) was a German mathematician , and student of Felix Klein . He was born in Bad Bergzabern , Palatinate , then a district of Bavaria , known for his research in the calculus of variations , particularly influenced by Karl Weierstrass 1879 lectures on the subject . Life . Bolza entered the University of Berlin in 1875 . His first interest was in linguistics , then he studied physics with Kirchhoff and Helmholtz , but experimental work did not attract him , so he decided on mathematics in 1878 . The years 1878–1881 were spent studying under Elwin Christoffel and Theodor Reye at Strasbourg , Hermann Schwarz at Göttingen , and particularly Karl Weierstrass in Berlin . In the spring of 1888 he landed in Hoboken , NJ , searching for a job in the United States : he succeeded in finding a position in 1889 at Johns Hopkins University and then at the then newly founded Clark University . In 1892 Bolza joined the University of Chicago and worked there up to 1910 when , after becoming unhappy in the United States as a consequence of the death of his friend Heinrich Maschke in 1908 , he and his wife returned to Freiburg in Germany . The events of World War I greatly affected Bolza and , after 1914 , he stopped his research in mathematics . He became interested in religious psychology , languages ( particularly Sanskrit ) , and Indian religions . He published the book Glaubenlose Religion ( religion without belief ) in 1930 under the pseudonym F . H . Marneck . However , later in his life , he returned to do research in mathematics , lecturing at University of Freiburg from 1929 up to his retirement in 1933 . Academic career . He completed his doctoral studies , after eight years of study and many changes of direction , in 1886 , from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . He wrote his thesis , titled Über die Reduction hyperelliptischer Integrale erster Ordnung und erster Gattung auf elliptische , insbesondere über die Reduction durch eine Transformation vierten Grades ( translated as On reduction of hyperelliptic integrals of first order and first kind to elliptic integrals , especially on reduction by transformation of fourth-degree ) under the supervision of Felix Klein . In 1889 Bolza worked at Johns Hopkins University , where Simon Newcomb gave him a temporary short-term appointment reader in mathematics , then he obtained a position as an associate professor at Clark University . While at Clark , Bolza published the important paper On the theory of substitution groups and its application to algebraic equations in the American Journal of Mathematics . In 1892 Bolza joined the University of Chicago and worked there up to 1910 , when he decided to return to Freiburg in Germany : he was appointed there as honorary professor , while the University Chicago awarded him the title of non-resident professor of mathematics which he retained for the rest of his life . Work . Research activity . Bolza published The elliptic s-functions considered as a special case of the hyperelliptic s-functions in 1900 which related to work he had been studying for his doctorate under Klein . However , he worked on the calculus of variations from 1901 . Papers which appeared in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society over the next few years were : New proof of a theorem of Osgoods in the calculus of variations ( 1901 ) ; Proof of the sufficiency of Jacobis condition for a permanent sign of the second variation in the so-called isoperimetric problems ( 1902 ) ; Weierstrass theorem and Knesers theorem on transversals for the most general case of an extremum of a simple definite integral ( 1906 ) ; and Existence proof for a field of extremals tangent to a given curve ( 1907 ) . His text Lectures on the Calculus of Variations published by the University of Chicago Press in 1904 , became a classic in its field and was republished several times : the augmented German edition of the same work was considered by his former student Gilbert Ames Bliss a classic , indispensable to every scholar in the field , and much wider in its scope than his earlier book . Immediately after his return to Germany Bolza continued teaching and research , in particular on function theory , integral equations and the calculus of variations . Two papers of 1913 and 1914 are particularly important . The first Problem mit gemischten Bedingungen und variablen Endpunkten formulated a new type of variational problem now called the Bolza problem of Bolza after him and the second studied variations for an integral problem involving inequalities . This latter work was to become important in control theory . Bolza returned to Chicago for part of 1913 giving lecturers during the summer on function theory and integral equations . Teaching activity . Bolza joined the University of Chicago in 1892 . Working eighteen years between 1892 and 1910 . During this time the mathematics department was outstandingly successful with thirty-nine students graduating with doctorates ( nine of them students of Bolza ) . These included Leonard Dickson , who was the first to be awarded a Ph.D . in mathematics by the University of Chicago , Gilbert Bliss , Oswald Veblen , Robert Lee Moore , George D . Birkhoff , and T . H . Hildebrandt . In 1908 Bolza moved into Freiburg and managed to become a professor at the University of Freiburg and lectured there for years . However , his teachings were interrupted by World War I afterword he continued lecturing at Freiburg until 1926 . After three years he returned to the University of Freiburg to continue lecturing he kept up his classes until 1933 . Selected publications . - a corrected and improved edition was published in 1960 as , while unabridged unaltered reprints of the first edition appeared in 1961 as , and in 2005 as , available from University of Michigan Digital Mathematics Library . - . The revised and notably augmented German edition of the classical work .