Person: Aubert, Karl
Karl Aubert was a Norwegian mathematician who researched mainly in the field of algebra.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- In that year, one year after Aubert was born, it reverted to its original Norwegian name.
- Aubert's education was disrupted by the war but, with the help of others, he overcame the difficulties in a remarkable way for he began publishing mathematics papers in 1944 while still a teenager.
- In this last mentioned paper Aubert claims that most mathematicians have only vague ideas concerning the general notion of relation, in spite of the fundamental importance of this notion.
- Although based at the University of Oslo where he held a fellowship, Aubert made several long-term study trips Paris.
- In 1957, Aubert was awarded the degree of dr.
- It was Karl Egil who showed me the Vigeland sculptures and Munch's museum; both left me an everlasting impression.
- Karl Egil was particularly fond of visiting Kingston, where he would work with Izzy Fleischer, our common friend.
- Karl Egil was very keen on his work on x-ideals and rightly thought that he completed in satisfactory manner the work initiated by Prüfer, Krull, Lorenzen and Jaffard.
- After his initial work, which was in several different branches of mathematics, Aubert's research was almost exclusively in algebra.
- Aubert is, as Ribenboim states in the above quote, famous for introducing the term "xxx-ideal", a concept which appears in his doctoral thesis, and this made it possible to combine a number of previous results into one common theory.
- Although Aubert's own research essentially concentrated on pure algebra, he was also concerned with the interplay between algebra and other fields of mathematics, and this became the subject of a new seminar in contemporary analysis that he started when he was given a fellowship at the University of Oslo.
- Despite the group not having a formal leader, Karl Egil Aubert was its central figure.
- Throughout the years, Aubert supervised a number of students.
- The most important aspect of Aubert's research was the basic ideas, the simple and general concepts, that he introduced.
- Aubert was also a driving force behind the meetings in the series "Ski and mathematics" at Gausdal Hotel, where teachers and students from universities and colleges from all over the country gathered during the first week of the new year for outdoor activities and inspiring lectures.
- Aubert was also ready to become involved in issues beyond academia when he thought it was necessary, as when he worked to strengthen women's representation at the University.
- Karl Egil Aubert perceived mathematical science as being part of general culture.
- Let us now look at the debate that Aubert carried on with Herbert Simon.
- In the early 1980s, Aubert criticised Simon's irrelevant use of mathematics beginning a fascinating debate in which they responded to each other in a series of papers.
- Aubert also criticised the fact that, in his paper Bandwagon and Underdog effects in election predictions (1954), Simon used the Brouwer fixed point theorem for a proof when the Intermediate Value Theorem would suffice.
- Herbert Simon replied to Aubert's criticisms.
- to which Aubert responded with the paper Mathematical modelling of election predictions: Comments to Simon's reply (1983).
- Given Aubert's interest in the philosophy of mathematics and also in its history, it was therefore no coincidence that he would play a crucial role in shaping the course "The development of mathematics and its uniqueness," intended specifically for prospective teachers in the subject.
- During the last 10 years of his life, Aubert was strongly committed to stimulate interest in mathematics among the very young, and his efforts were essential for the Abel competition to become an annual competition in schools across the country.
- Aubert's personal qualities were of paramount importance for the role he played in Norway's academic environment.
- Aubert's primary legacy is his role in building up the academic community.
Born 19 August 1924, Kristiania, now Oslo, Norway. Died 21 October 1990, Oslo, Norway.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Norway
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
