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Hans Heilbronn
Times obituary
A distinguished mathematician
Professor H. A. Heilbronn, FRS, Henry Overton Wills Professor of Mathematics in the University of Bristol 1949-64, and since 1964 Professor of Mathematics in the University of Toronto, has died in Toronto.
Hans Arnold Heilbronn was born in Berlin on October 8, 1908. In 1926 he entered university to study mathe matics and, as is usual in Germany, he moved around, studying first in Berlin, then in Freiburg and finally in Göttingen, in those days the centre of German mathematics. There he became an assistant in 1930, working with E. Landau, one of the leaders in the flourishing school of number theory in pre-Hitler Germany. Throughout Heilbronn's life his principal research interest remained with number theory and he was to make many significant contributions, mainly in algebraic number theory and in the application of analytic methods.
After Hitler's rise to power, Heilbronn left Germany and came to Bristol, where he held a research scholarship from 1933 το 1935. It was during these years that Heilbronn sprang into prominence in the world of mathematics with a proof of a famous conjecture of Gauss on the class number of definite binary quadratic forms, which had withstood all attempts since the early nineteenth century. This work was a milestone in a line of research which still continues today.
After a brief stay in Manchester, Heilbronn was elected to a Bevan Fellowship at Trinity, which he held from 1935 to 1940. This period saw the beginning of a life-long friendship and a close collaboration with Harold Davenport, which led to a remarkable series of joint papers, the first published in 1936 and the last in 1971, after Davenport's death. Heilbronn served in the British Army from 1940 to 1945 and then, after a year at University College London, he returned to Bristol University in 1946 first as a Reader and from 1949 as Professor and Head of Department. He succeeded in building up a department with an excellent reputation. During these years his influence on mathematicians of the younger generation was most marked. Perhaps some measure of his success may be gauged by the number of former colleagues or students who now hold senior appointments.
Heilbronn was always a vigorous champion of his department and a man of strong convictions. Those closest to him were not surprised when, by 1964, he had decided that he must uproot himself once more. He was clearly out of sympathy with post-Robbins university policy, and one might say that developments in recent years have gone far to justify his judgment.
In 1964 Heilbronn married Mrs Dorothy Greaves and the couple settled in Toronto where Heilbronn held a chair until his death. His influence was soon felt in Canadian mathematics. In particular he played a crucial part in the prepагаtion for the International Congress of Mathematicians in Vancouver, 1974.
Heilbronn was elected FRS in 1951, he was president of the London Mathematical Society 1959-61 and a member of the council of the Royal Society of Canada 1971-73. All those who knew Heilbronn will remember him above all as a man of principle and great sincerity.
A distinguished mathematician
Professor H. A. Heilbronn, FRS, Henry Overton Wills Professor of Mathematics in the University of Bristol 1949-64, and since 1964 Professor of Mathematics in the University of Toronto, has died in Toronto.
Hans Arnold Heilbronn was born in Berlin on October 8, 1908. In 1926 he entered university to study mathe matics and, as is usual in Germany, he moved around, studying first in Berlin, then in Freiburg and finally in Göttingen, in those days the centre of German mathematics. There he became an assistant in 1930, working with E. Landau, one of the leaders in the flourishing school of number theory in pre-Hitler Germany. Throughout Heilbronn's life his principal research interest remained with number theory and he was to make many significant contributions, mainly in algebraic number theory and in the application of analytic methods.
After Hitler's rise to power, Heilbronn left Germany and came to Bristol, where he held a research scholarship from 1933 το 1935. It was during these years that Heilbronn sprang into prominence in the world of mathematics with a proof of a famous conjecture of Gauss on the class number of definite binary quadratic forms, which had withstood all attempts since the early nineteenth century. This work was a milestone in a line of research which still continues today.
After a brief stay in Manchester, Heilbronn was elected to a Bevan Fellowship at Trinity, which he held from 1935 to 1940. This period saw the beginning of a life-long friendship and a close collaboration with Harold Davenport, which led to a remarkable series of joint papers, the first published in 1936 and the last in 1971, after Davenport's death. Heilbronn served in the British Army from 1940 to 1945 and then, after a year at University College London, he returned to Bristol University in 1946 first as a Reader and from 1949 as Professor and Head of Department. He succeeded in building up a department with an excellent reputation. During these years his influence on mathematicians of the younger generation was most marked. Perhaps some measure of his success may be gauged by the number of former colleagues or students who now hold senior appointments.
Heilbronn was always a vigorous champion of his department and a man of strong convictions. Those closest to him were not surprised when, by 1964, he had decided that he must uproot himself once more. He was clearly out of sympathy with post-Robbins university policy, and one might say that developments in recent years have gone far to justify his judgment.
In 1964 Heilbronn married Mrs Dorothy Greaves and the couple settled in Toronto where Heilbronn held a chair until his death. His influence was soon felt in Canadian mathematics. In particular he played a crucial part in the prepагаtion for the International Congress of Mathematicians in Vancouver, 1974.
Heilbronn was elected FRS in 1951, he was president of the London Mathematical Society 1959-61 and a member of the council of the Royal Society of Canada 1971-73. All those who knew Heilbronn will remember him above all as a man of principle and great sincerity.
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