Richard Dedekind

Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (1831-1916) was a German mathematician.

 Biography 
At first Dedekind was only interested in physics and chemistry. At the age of 19, he entered the University of Göttingen. Two years later, he defended his doctoral thesis on Euler integrals before a jury which Carl Friedrich Gauss was a member. In 1854, Dedekind taught at the University of Göttingen. For the first time, in the academic year 1857-1858, he wrote a textbook on the theory of Évariste Galois and perhaps this was the first time this textbook was taught. He appreciated the importance of the concept of group in algebra and arithmetic. At the age of 26, Dedekind became the Professor at the University of Durich. After five years, he went to Brunswick Technical College for more than half a century. He had strong body and sharp mind. He never married.

 Studies 
Richard Dedekind invented the theory of ideals in algebra . He axiomatized his arithmetic works. He also researched  probability. His most famous work was Dedekind cut.

 Friends 
Dedekind was a friend of Georg Cantor, Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet and Bernhard Riemann . Dedekind and Cantor first met in Switzerland, and then reunited in the Harz Mountains. Dedekind collected and published Dirichlet's lectures and research results on arithmetic under the name Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie (English: Lectures on arithmetic). As for Riemann, Dedekind became acquainted with him when Dedekind began teaching at the University of Göttingen.

 Honor 
The asteroid 19293 Dedekind is named after Richard Dedekind.

Category:Algebraists
Category:German philosophers
Category:Number theorists
Category:German mathematicians
Category:1916 deaths
Category:1831 births