Leo August Pochhammer

Leo August Pochhammer ( born August 25, 1841 in Stendal, † March 24, 1920 in Kiel ) was a German mathematician and namesake for the Pochhammer symbol.

Life

Pochhammer grew up in Berlin and studied from 1859 to 1863 Mathematics and Physics at the Friedrich- Wilhelms- University of Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1863 at Ernst Eduard Kummer Dr. phil .. 1872 and his habilitation. The next two years he was a lecturer in Berlin. In 1874 he was A.O. Professor at the Christian -Albrechts -University of Kiel. After the Mathematical Seminar was founded in 1877 nämlicher University, a second chair of mathematics was established with the appointment Pochhammers to Full Professor. On May 22, 1877 Regulations for the mathematical seminar at the Royal University in Kiel was adopted. Besides Georg Daniel Edward Weyer Pochhammer was named one of the directors of the seminar. In the years 1893/94 he was rector of the university. In his rectorial address on March 6, 1893, he delivered a " contribution to the question of university studies in women." In 1895, he became the go. Councillor appointed. From 1876 to 1914 he gave a part-time teaching at the Naval Academy and School (Kiel). Only a few months after his retirement in 1919, he died. Successor on the second chair was Otto Toeplitz.

Work

Pochhammers more than forty years of work in Kiel is characterized by the impressive richness and diversity of its teaching activities as well as its rich scientific work. He was described as a " very diligent and conscientious Docent ". In his lectures, which were completed in accordance with the regulations through regular exercises and seminars, he treated almost all areas of mathematics at that time and was in addition to other responsible for a significant expansion of the teaching operation. His numerous writings are mainly devoted to the theory of ordinary and partial differential equations, often associated with physical problems. Above all, his studies on the hypergeometric differential equation and its generalizations are linked up today with his name. In a number of other works, he dealt with the elasticity of a rod, the propagation of vibrations in circular cylinders and differential equations for isotropic elastic media.