Person: Kiefer, Adolf

Adolf Kiefer was a Swiss mathematician who worked mainly in geometry.

Adolf first attended primary school in Selzach, then the Bezirksschule in Grenchen, and finally the Kantonsschule in Solothurn.
In any case Kiefer senior obtained his doctorate from the University of Zürich in 1881 for his thesis Der Kontakt höherer Ordnung bei algebraischen Flächen Ⓣ(Higher order contact of algebraic surfaces).
From 1882-1894 Kiefer taught geometry and technical drawing at the Kantonsschule in Frauenfeld (canton Thurgau), primarily at the school's vocational section, the Industrieschule.
The college was closed after the First World War, but Kiefer found teaching posts at the Kantonsschule, the technical college and the teachers' college in Zürich.
Kiefer published almost forty papers, most of which are on geometry.
Kiefer joined the enlarged committee of the first International Congress of Mathematicians, as well as the committee in charge of board and lodging, in December 1896.
Adolf Kiefer retired in 1926 after having fainted in his classroom.

Born 22 June 1857, Selzach, Solothurn canton, Switzerland. Died 15 November 1929, Zürich, Switzerland.

View full biography at MacTutor

Origin Switzerland

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

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