Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler
Born: 16 March 1846 in Stockholm, Sweden
Died: 7 July 1927 in Stockholm, Sweden
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Gösta Mittag-Leffler worked on the general theory of functions.
Mittag-Leffler trained as an actuary but later took up mathematics and was appointed to the University of Uppsala in 1872. He attended Weierstrass's lectures in Berlin in 1875. He was appointed to a chair at the University of Helsinki in 1877 and four years later he returned to his home town of Stockholm to take up a chair at the University.
He made numerous contributions to mathematical analysis (concerned with limits and including calculus, analytic geometry and probability theory). He worked on the general theory of functions, concerning relationships between independent and dependent variables.
His best known work concerned the analytic representation of a one-valued function, this work culminated in the Mittag-Leffler theorem. This work began as generalising work in Weierstrass's lectures. After he had returned to Stockholm, Mittag-Leffler published proofs in several articles in Swedish.
He eventually assembled his findings into a paper which he published (in French) in 1884 in Acta Mathematica . In this paper Mittag-Leffler proposed a series of general topological notions on infinite point sets based on Cantor's new set theory. Mittag-Leffler was one of the first mathematicians to support Cantor's theory of sets.
In 1882 he founded Acta Mathematica and served as chief editor of the journal for 45 years. Mittag-Leffler's wife was extremely wealthy and her money supported the setting up of the Journal.
In 1884, the year he published his masterpiece, Kovalevskaya arrived in Stockholm at Mittag-Leffler's invitation. On her death in 1891 Mittag-Leffler wrote
She came to us from the centre of modern science full of faith and enthusiasm for the ideas of her great master in Berlin, the venerable old man who has outlived his favourite pupil. Her works, all of which belong to the same order of ideas, have shown by new discoveries the power of Weierstrass's system.
References elsewhere in this archive:
Tell me about Mittag-Leffler's work on set theory
Other Web sites:
It has been alleged that the fact that there is no Nobel prize in mathematics may have something to do with Mittag-Leffler. However, see a Web site at Waterloo, Canada for further information.
References:
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