Friedrichs

Kurt Otto Friedrichs

Born: 28 Sept 1901 in Kiel, Germany
Died: 31 Dec 1982 in New Rochelle, New York, USA

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Kurt Friedrichs solved a problem in relativity while still at school. His dissertation on the theory of elastic plates was written under Courant's supervision at Göttingen. He became Courant's assistant and helped with the Courant-Hilbert book. Friedrichs went to Aachen in 1929 and became professor in Braunschweig in 1932.

His main work was on partial differential equations in mathematical physics. He used finite differences to prove existence of solutions. Friedrichs also worked on fluid dynamics. His girlfriend was Jewish so from 1933 he experienced problems. He went to the USA in 1937 to join Courant who had emigrated earlier, and was joined by his girlfriend whom he married.

References:

  1. C Reid, K O Friedrichs 1901-1982, Mathematical Intelligencer 5 (1983), 23-30.
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JOC/EFR February 1996