Person: Heun, Karl
Karl Heun was a German mathematician best known for the Heun differential equation which generalises the hypergeometric differential equation.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Heun stayed in Halle only between April and October 1880, probably due to the deteriorating health of Heine who died in 1881.
- Heun then moved to England and taught for two and a half years (1883-1885) at the Public School in Uppingham.
- In 1900 Heun was honoured with the title professor, and in 1902 he was nominated as first candidate for the vacant chair in technical mechanics at Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe.
- Heun accepted this offer and stayed in Karlsruhe until his death in 1929.
- His assistants in Karlsruhe were Georg Hamel (from 1902 to 1905), Max Winkelmann (from 1905 to 1911) and Fritz Noether (from 1911 to 1918).
- Kurt von Sanden was his student from 1905 to 1909, and he became Heun's successor in 1923.
- Heun did not recover from a stroke he suffered in 1921 and retired in 1922.
- The Heun equation is a second order linear differential equation of the Fuchsian type with four singular points.
Born 3 April 1859, Wiesbaden, Germany. Died 10 January 1929, Karlsruhe, Germany.
View full biography at MacTutor
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Origin Germany
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
