Karl Weierstrass 1

Karl Weierstrass, Professor of Mathematics at Berlin

University, was famous as a great scientist, Leo Koenigsberger

being one of his students.

Weierstrass was a giant of thinking and has left an

indelible mark on mathematics. His name is familiar to

everyone who studied the theory of complex variables.

Proceeding from the theory of real numbers he had developed

he provided a logical substantiation for mathematical

analysis, while his theory of analytic functions is very

significant.

The name Weierstrass is deeply ingrained in many sections

and theorems of mathematics: the Bolzano-Weierstrass

theorem, the Weierstrass theory of elliptic functions; the

study of sufficient conditions for the maximum of an integral

(in the calculus of variations); the geodesic lines and minimal

surfaces in differential geometry; the theory of elementary

divisors in linear algebra; the application of series in the

theory of analytic functions (in 1841, when Weierstrass was

twenty-six, he knew of the theorem Laurent published in

1843); the theory of analytic continuation.