Carl ludwig siegel biography of michael

Carl Ludwig Siegel (December 31, 1896 – April 4, 1981) was a mathematician specialising in number theory.

Biography

Siegel was born in Berlin, where he enrolled at the Humboldt University in Berlin in 1915 as a student in mathematics, astronomy, and physics.

Amongst his teachers were Max Planck and Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, whose influence made the young Siegel abandon astronomy and turn towards number theory instead.

In 1917 he was drafted into the German Army. Since he refused military service, he was committed to a psychiatric institute.

Carl ludwig siegel biography of michael

According to his own words, he withstood the experience only because of his support from Edmund Landau, whose father had a clinic in the neighborhood. After the end of World War I, he enrolled at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, studying under Edmund Landau, who was his doctoral thesis supervisor (Ph.D.

in 1920). He stayed in Göttingen as a teaching and research assistant; many of his groundbreaking results were published duri