Richard Courant Richard Courant ( January 8 , 1888 – January 27 , 1972 ) was a German mathematician . He is best known by the general public for the book " What is Mathematics ? " , co - written with Herbert Robbins , which was praised by Albert Einstein : " A lucid representation of the fundamental concepts and methods of the whole field of mathematics . . . Easily understandable . " Life . Courant was born in Lublinitz in the German Empire ' s Prussian Province of Silesia . During his youth , his parents had to move quite often , to Glatz , Breslau , and in 1905 to Berlin . He stayed in Breslau and entered the university there . As he found the courses not demanding enough , he continued his studies in Zürich and Göttingen . Courant eventually became David Hilbert ' s assistant in Göttingen and obtained his doctorate there in 1910 . He had to fight in World War I , but he was wounded and dismissed from the military service shortly after enlisting . After the war , in 1919 , he married Nerina ( Nina ) Runge , a daughter of the Göttingen professor for Applied Mathematics , Carl Runge . Richard continued his research in Göttingen , with a two - year period as professor in Münster . There he founded the Mathematical Institute , which he headed as director from 1928 until 1933 . Courant left Germany in 1933 , earlier than many of his colleagues . While he was classified as a Jew by the Nazis , his having served as a front - line soldier exempted him from losing his position for this particular reason at the time ; however , his public membership in the social - democratic left was a reason for dismissal to which no such exemption applied . After one year in Cambridge , Courant went to New York City where he became a professor at New York University in 1936 . He was given the task of founding an institute for graduate studies in applied mathematics , a task which he carried out very successfully . The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences ( as it was renamed in 1964 ) continues to be one of the most respected research centers in applied mathematics . Apart from his outstanding organizational talent , Courant is well remembered for his mathematical achievements . He and David Hilbert authored the influential textbook " Methods of Mathematical Physics " , which is still widely used more than eighty years after it was written . He was the co - author , with Herbert Robbins , of a popularization titled " What is Mathematics ? " , which is still in print . Although Robbins wrote most of the book , he received almost none of the royalties . Courant owned the copyright , and passed almost none of the money on to Robbins . Courant ' s name is also attached to the finite element method , with his numerical treatment of the plain torsion problem for multiply - connected domains , published in 1943 . This method is now one of the ways to solve partial differential equation s numerically . Courant is a namesake of the Courant – Friedrichs – Lewy condition and the Courant minimax principle . Courant died in New Rochelle , New York . Richard and Nerina had four children : Ernest , a particle physicist and innovator in particle accelerators ; Gertrude ( * 1922 ) , a PhD biologist and wife of the mathematician Jürgen Moser ( 1928 – 1999 ) ; Hans , a physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project ; and Leonore , a professional musician and wife of the mathematician Jerome Berkowitz ( 1928 – 1998 ) . Perspective on mathematics . Commenting upon his analysis of experimental results from in - laboratory soap film formations , Courant believed that the existence of a physical solution does not obviate the need for mathematical proof . Here is a quote from Courant on his mathematical perspective :