Person: Hirsch (2), Kurt
Kurt Hirsch worked in various areas of Group Theory.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- His parents were Robert Hirsch and Anna Lehmann.
- August Hirsch was for a time rector of the University of Berlin, something which would prove helpful to his grandson many years later.
- Kurt Hirsch began his studies there in the autumn of 1925, taking courses in both mathematics and philosophy.
- Completed and examined on 10 June 1930 (Bieberbach was an examiner), it was not until 1933 that Kurt could afford to get it printed, so he did not receive the degree until 1933.
- Kurt was introduced to Philip Hall who strongly encouraged him to pursue his intention of working on soluble groups with the maximum condition on subgroups.
- Up to this stage Hirsch had been totally undecided whether to pursue mathematics or journalism as a career but his meeting with Hall quickly led to him choosing mathematics.
- Despite having a doctorate, Hirsch decided that his prospects in Britain would be better if he had a British doctorate so he became a student of Hall.
- In September 1934, Elsa, Daniel and Sabine left Berlin and joined Hirsch in Cambridge where he had rented a house close to where Bernhard Neumann was living.
- Hirsch published his first paper A note on non-commutative polynomials in 1937.
- Hirsch was sent to the Central internment camp in Douglas on the Isle of Man, where he lived in House 7.
- lecture courses and a camp university in which Hirsch was happy to participate.
- In 1947 both Kurt and Elsa became British citizens.
- In 1948 Hirsch moved to King's College, Newcastle (founded in 1937 as a part of the University of Durham and becoming the University of Newcastle in 1963) where he worked under the newly appointed professor of Pure Mathematics, W W Rogosinki.
- His personality made an impact rather stronger than that of Rogosinki, though one could see that Kurt regarded Rogosinki as more important than himself on the only ground that mattered to Kurt, namely mathematical standing.
- Then in 1951 Hirsch was appointed to Queen Mary College of the University of London where he was appointed professor in 1958.
- All Hirsch's publications were in group theory, in addition to the work on polycyclic groups he published on locally nilpotent groups and automorphism groups of torsion free abelian groups.
Born 12 January 1906, Berlin, Germany. Died 4 November 1986, London, England.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Group Theory, Origin Germany
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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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
