Person: Żorawski, Kazimierz
Kazimierz Żorawski was a Polish mathematician who worked on invariants of differential forms, integral invariants of Lie groups, differential geometry and fluid mechanics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Kazimierz and Maria fell in love and wanted to marry.
- For several years Kazimierz and Maria hoped that Kazimierz's parents would relent and approve the marriage, but this never happened.
- In 1888, after four years at the University of Warsaw, Żorawski graduated with a first degree in mathematics.
- Engel was also at Leipzig and at the time when Żorawski studied their they were working on their major work Theorie der Transformationsgruppen Ⓣ(Theory of transformation groups) which was published in three volumes between 1888 and 1893.
- With much ability, Żorawski worked to resolve difficult and complicated calculations which were necessary to solve the problems ...
- Żorawski was appointed as a lecturer at the Lwów Polytechnic (now in Lviv in Ukraine) in 1892 and was promoted to professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department in the following year.
- In 1900 Stanisław Zaremba was also appointed as professor at the Jagiellonian University and together Żorawski and Zaremba built a major school of mathematics.
- A government grant allowed Żorawski to visit both Leipzig and Paris during the winter semester 1901-02 to further his studies.
- After returning to Kraków, Żorawski continued to teach courses on analytical and synthetic geometry, differential geometry, the formal theory of the differential equations, the theory of the forms, and the theory of the Lie groups.
- Let us quote the titles of two of Żorawski's papers which were written in German and published during his time in Kraków: Über infinitesimale Transformationen der Ebene, welche gewissen geometrischen Bedingungen genügen Ⓣ(On infinitesimal transformations of the plane which satisfy certain geometric conditions) (1901) and Über Eigenschaften eines vielfachen Integrals, welche Verallgemeinerungen zweier Sätze der Theorie der Wirbelbewegung sind Ⓣ(On characteristics of a multiple integral which generalizations of two sets of the theory of vortex motion are) (1913).
- We related above the story of how Żorawski and Maria Sklodowska wished to marry but were unable to do so because of Żorawski's parents.
- An informal Mathematical Society was established in Kraków in 1917, and Żorawski was one of several mathematicians directly involved with setting up this new society.
- Among the sixteen mathematicians present were Stefan Banach, Otto Nikodym, Stanisław Zaremba, and Kazimierz Żorawski.
- The session was introduced by Żorawski who said that an all-Polish Mathematical Society was being set up in Warsaw, and he proposed a motion to initiate a 'Mathematical Society in Kraków' which might later become associated with the new Warsaw Society.
- Soon after this, later in the year 1919, Żorawski moved to Warsaw where he accepted a professorship at the Technical University.
- When the various Polish mathematical societies combined in 1920 into the Polish Mathematical Society, Żorawski became a founder member of the new Society.
- His great contributions to the Warsaw Scientific Society were marked by the Society with the creation of the Commemorative Żorawski Medal in 1931.
- In 1926 Żorawski became a professor at the University of Warsaw and continued in this role until he retired in 1935.
- Żorawski remained in Warsaw and continued to make progress on his many volume treatise.
- Żorawski, along with many thousands of the inhabitants of Warsaw, was taken by the Germans to Pruszków.
- After some time Żorawski was released from Pruszków and he went with a number of other scientists to Nieborów.
- Remarkably, Żorawski then set about rewriting his book which had been destroyed following the Warsaw Uprising.
- Żorawski was elected a full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1952.
Born 22 June 1866, Szczuczyn, Poland (now Shchuchyn, Belarus). Died 23 January 1953, Narutowicz, Poland.
View full biography at MacTutor
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Origin Belarus
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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
