Person: Vrănceanu, Gheorghe
Gheorghe Vrănceanu was a Romanian mathematician, best known for his work in differential geometry and topology.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Arnautescu helped Gheorghe to move to Vaslui High School in 1912, where Gheorghe discovered his love of mathematics.
- Vrănceanu was awarded an Adamachi scholarship to study at Iasi University, which he entered in 1919, and there he was taught mathematics by Alexandru, Vera Myller, Simeon Sanielevici, Victor Valcovici and Simeon Stoilow, all famous Romanian mathematicians of that time.
- Vrănceanu was very highly regarded by his professors and, on 15 February 1922, he graduated from the University of Iasi.
- However, while still a student in his third year, Vrănceanu was appointed, on 1 December 1921, as an assistant to the mathematics seminar at the request of S Sanielevici.
- After a brilliant undergraduate career Vrănceanu went first to Göttingen in 1923 where he studied under Hilbert, then he went to Rome to study for his doctorate in mathematics.
- In Rome Vrănceanu studied under Levi-Civita, obtaining his doctorate on 5 November 1924 for a dissertation Sopra una teorema di Weierstrass e le sue applicazioni alla stabilita Ⓣ(On a theorem of Weierstrass and its applications to stability) which gave a new proof of a theorem on the decomposition of analytical functions of more variables and also studied applications of the theorem to mechanics.
- Vrănceanu returned to Iasi and, in 1926, still developing ideas suggested by Levi-Civita, Vrănceanu discovered the notion of a non-holonomic space.
- Today this concept is named after Vrănceanu.
- In 1929 Vrănceanu moved to Cernauti University where he was appointed professor of analytical geometry, then still at Cernauti he was appointed professor of Differential and Integral Geometry in the following year.
- After 10 years of great mathematical activity at Cernauti University, he was asked to fill in the professorship at Bucharest University which had become vacant on the death of Gheorghe Țițeica in 1939.
- In 1948 Vrănceanu was appointed Head of Geometry and Topology at Bucharest University.
- During his time at Cernauti University Vrănceanu became known as one of the leading geometers in the world.
- Meanwhile Vrănceanu made new discoveries in global geometry.
- At Bucharest University Vrănceanu began to organise the mathematics library in a similar way to the one in Iasi.
- Vrănceanu organised the Mathematical Institute of the Romanian Academy, a very important step for theoretical and applied researches in his country.
- During his career, Vrănceanu published over 300 articles in journals throughout the world.
- Vrănceanu won many honours, both in his own country and elsewhere.
- Vrănceanu served as a member of the International Committee of the International Mathematical Union for many years and, in that capacity, he was involved in publishing the complete works of Élie Cartan.
- In 1975 Vrănceanu was elected Vice-president of the International Mathematical Union.
Born 30 June 1900, Valea Hogii, Vaslui, Romania. Died 27 April 1979, Bucharest, Romania.
View full biography at MacTutor
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Origin Romania
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
