Felix Bernstein (mathematician)
{{short description|German Jewish mathematician}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Felix Bernstein
| image = Bernstein Felix.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1878|2|24|df=y}}
| birth_place = Halle
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1956|12|3|1878|2|24|df=y}}
| death_place = Zürich, Switzerland
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| alma_mater = University of Göttingen
| thesis1_title = Untersuchungen aus der Mengenlehre
| thesis1_url = http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/index.php?id=11&PPN=PPN235181684_0061&DMDID=DMDLOG_0015&L=1
| thesis1_year = 1901
| thesis2_title = Über den Klassenkörper eines algebraischen Zahlkörpers
| thesis2_year = 1903
| doctoral_advisor = David Hilbert
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| known_for = Schröder–Bernstein theorem
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| children = Marianne Bernstein-Wiener{{rp|7r}}
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Felix Bernstein (24 February 1878 – 3 December 1956), was a German mathematician known for proving in 1896 the Schröder–Bernstein theorem, a central result in set theory,{{rp|5–6}}{{DSB|first=Henry|last=Nathan|title=Bernstein, Felix|volume=2|pages=58–59}}In 1897 (aged 19), according to {{cite book | author=Oliver Deiser | contribution=Zeittafel zur frühen Mengenlehre | title=Einführung in die Mengenlehre — Die Mengenlehre Georg Cantors und ihre Axiomatisierung durch Ernst Zermelo | location=Heidelberg | publisher=Springer | edition=3rd | contribution-url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/bbm%3A978-3-642-01445-1%2F1.pdf | isbn=978-3-540-20401-5 | year=2010}}
and less well known for demonstrating in 1924 the correct blood group inheritance pattern of multiple alleles at one locus through statistical analysis.
Life
Felix Bernstein was born in Halle on 24 February 1878 to a Jewish family of academics."Felix Bernstein". International Statistical Review (2005), 73: 1. 3-7. His father Julius held the Chair of Physiology at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, and was the Director of the Physiological Institute at the University of Halle.
While still in gymnasium in Halle, Bernstein heard the university seminar of Georg Cantor, who was a friend of Bernstein's father.{{rp|5r}}
From 1896 to 1900, Bernstein studied in Munich, Halle, Berlin and Göttingen.{{cite journal | author=Max Pinl | title=Kollegen in einer dunklen Zeit (2) | journal=Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung | volume=72 | pages=165–189 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN37721857X_0072/log14.pdf | year=1970 }}{{rp|166}}
In the early Weimar Republic, Bernstein temporarily was Göttingen vice-chairman of the local chapter of German Democratic Party .{{cite book | author=Norbert Schappacher | contribution=Das Mathematische Institut der Universität Göttingen 1929—1950 | pages=345–373 | contribution-url=http://www-irma.u-strasbg.fr/~schappa/NSch/Publications_files/GoeNS.pdf |editor=Becker |editor2=Dahms |editor3=Wegeler | title=Die Universität Göttingen unter dem Nationalsozialismus | location=München | publisher=K.G.Saur | year=1987 }} — Schappacher gives a lot of details from the Göttingen University archive.{{rp|7}}{{cite thesis | type=Ph.D. thesis | author=Barbara Marshall | title=The Political Development of German University Towns in the Weimar Republic: Göttingen and Münster 1918—1930 | institution=Univ. of London | year=1972 }}{{rp|118}}{{cite report |author1=Steffi Laemmle |author2=Willy Tiabou |author3=Christoph Bichlmeier | title=Seminar für überfachliche Grundlagen: Mathematiker in der NS-Zeit | contribution=Verfolgte Mathematiker (Persecuted Mathematicians) | institution=TU Munich | type=Term Paper | contribution-url=http://www5.in.tum.de/lehre/seminare/math_nszeit/SS03/vortraege/verfolgt | date=May 2003 }}
In 1933,In 1934, according to O'Connor, Robertson (MacTutor).
after Hitler's rise to power, Bernstein was removed from his chair, per §6 of the Nazi Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, often used against politically unpopular persons.
He received the message of his dismissal during a research/lecturing journey (started on Dec. 1st, 1932) to the United States, and he stayed there.{{rp|166}}{{rp|7–8}}
Bernstein was a visiting professor of mathematics at Columbia University from 1933 to 1936 and a professor of biometry at New York University from 1936 to 1943.{{cite book|editor=Cattell, Jaques|title=American Men of Science: A Biographical Dictionary|page=192|year=1949|publisher=The Science Press|location=Lancaster, Pennsylvania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ea9CC4lCicQC&pg=PA192}} In 1942 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.{{cite web|title=Historic Fellows|website=American Association for the Advancement of Science|url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic}} In 1948, Bernstein retired from teaching in the US, and returned to Europe.{{MacTutor Biography|id=Bernstein_Felix}}
He mainly lived in Rome and Freiburg, occasionally visiting Göttingen,{{rp|166}} where he became professor emeritus.
He died in Zürich on 3 December 1956.{{Cite journal |last1 = Crow | first1 = J. F. |title = Felix Bernstein and the first human marker locus |journal = Genetics |volume = 133 |issue = 1 |pages = 4–7 |year = 1993 |doi = 10.1093/genetics/133.1.4 |pmid = 8417988 |pmc = 1205297}}{{rp|6r}}
Publications
- {{cite thesis | type=Habilitation thesis | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Über den Klassenkörper eines algebraischen Zahlkörpers | institution=Univ. Göttingen | year=1903 }}
- {{cite journal |title=Untersuchungen aus der Mengenlehre |author=Felix Bernstein |journal=Mathematische Annalen |volume=61 |year=1905 |pages=117–155 |url=http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/index.php?id=11&PPN=PPN235181684_0061&DMDID=DMDLOG_0015&L=1 |doi=10.1007/bf01457734 |s2cid=119658724 |access-date=2014-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202210121/http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/index.php?id=11&PPN=PPN235181684_0061&DMDID=DMDLOG_0015&L=1 |archive-date=2014-02-02 |url-status=dead }} (Dissertation, 1901); reprint Jan 2010, {{ISBN|1141370263}}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Über die isoperimetrische Eigenschaft des Kreises auf der Kugeloberfläche und in der Ebene | journal=Mathematische Annalen | volume=60 | pages=117–136 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN235181684_0060/log9.pdf | year=1905 | doi=10.1007/bf01447496| s2cid=121773961 }}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Über die Reihe der transfiniten Ordnungszahlen | journal=Mathematische Annalen | volume=60 | issue=2 | pages=187–193 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN235181684_0060/log23.pdf | year=1905 | doi=10.1007/bf01677265| s2cid=119726638 }}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Die Theorie der reellen Zahlen | journal=Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung | volume=14 | pages=447–449 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN37721857X_0014/log113.pdf | year=1905 }}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Zum Kontinuumproblem | journal=Mathematische Annalen | volume=60 | issue=3 | pages=463–464 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN235181684_0060/log49.pdf | year=1905 | doi=10.1007/bf01457626| s2cid=179177776 }}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Über das Gaußsche Fehlergesetz | journal=Mathematische Annalen | volume=64 | issue=3 | pages=417–448 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN235181684_0064/log43.pdf | year=1907 | doi=10.1007/bf01476025| s2cid=125418501 }}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Zur Theorie der trigonometrischen Reihe | journal=Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik | volume=132 | pages=270–278 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN243919689_0132/log21.pdf | year=1907 }}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Die Mengenlehre Georg Cantors und der Finitismus | journal=Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung | volume=28 | pages=63–78 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN37721857X_0028/log10.pdf | year=1919 }}
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Die Übereinstimmung derjenigen beiden Summationsverfahren einer divergenten Reihe, welche von T.E. Stieltjes und E. Borel herrühren | journal=Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung | volume=28 | pages=50–63 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN37721857X_0028/log9.pdf | year=1919 }} — [http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN37721857X_0029/log8.pdf Corrections] in Vol.29 (1920), p. 94
- {{cite journal | author=Felix Bernstein | title=Zur Statistik der sekundären Geschlechtsmerkmale beim Menschen | journal=Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse | volume=1923 | pages=89–95 | url=http://www.digizeitschriften.de/download/PPN252457811_1923/log15.pdf | year=1923 }}
Notes
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See also
References
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150822200445/http://www.fbms.math.uni-goettingen.de/index.php?id=62 Biography] at the [http://fbms.math.uni-goettingen.de Felix-Bernstein-Institute for Mathematical Statistics in the Biosciences] at the Göttingen University
- {{MathGenealogy|id=7346}}
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Category:20th-century German mathematicians
Category:People from Halle (Saale)
Category:People from the Province of Saxony
Category:20th-century German Jews
Category:University of Göttingen alumni
Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science