Person: Henrici, Olaus Magnus Friedrich Erdmann

Olaus Henrici was a German mathematician who became a professor in London.

Olaus entered the gymnasium at Meldorf in 1852 and studied there until 1856.
While training for this occupation, Henrici's talents were recognised by Clebsch and he entered the Polytechnicum at Karlsruhe in 1859 to study mathematics.
Clebsch persuaded Hesse to take Henrici on as a Ph.D. student at Heidelberg in 1862.
Henrici then went to Berlin and studied under Weierstrass and Kronecker.
Employing Henrici as an assistant seemed like a good way of reducing his workload so that is precisely what Hirst did.
In 1869 Henrici was appointed professor of mathematics at Bedford College for Women.
Henrici, who at this stage was doing the teaching anyway, was appointed professor of mathematics at University College.
In 1879 Clifford, who had been professor of applied mathematics and mechanics at University College, died, and Henrici was asked to take over his teaching duties.
Clearly the duties of the two chairs were too much for one person so in 1880 Henrici was formally installed as professor of applied mathematics and mechanics and resigned his chair of mathematics.
Henrici wrote some excellent little books to introduce undergraduates to mathematical ideas such as projective geometry in Congruent Figures (1878), and vector methods in Vectors and Rotors (1903).
Henrici was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1874 and was a member of its Council during 1882-83.

Born 9 March 1840, Meldorf, Holstein (now Germany). Died 10 August 1918, Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, England.

View full biography at MacTutor

Origin Germany

Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive