Virgil Snyder

{{short description|American mathematician (1869-1950)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Virgil Snyder

| image = Virgil Snyder.png

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| birth_date = 1869

| birth_place = Dixon, Iowa

| death_date = 1950

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| alma_mater = Iowa State College
Cornell University
University of Göttingen

| occupation = Mathematician

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| known_for = President American Mathematical Society

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Virgil Snyder (1869, Dixon, Iowa – 1950) was an American mathematician, specializing in algebraic geometry.

In 1886, Snyder matriculated at Iowa State College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1889. He attended Cornell University as a graduate student from 1890 to 1892, leaving to study mathematics in Germany on an Erastus W. Brooks fellowship. In 1895, he received a doctorate from the University of Göttingen under Felix Klein. In 1895, Snyder returned to Cornell as an instructor, becoming an assistant professor in 1905 and a full professor in 1910. In 1938, he retired as professor emeritus, having supervised 39 doctoral students, 13 of whom were women.[http://www.math.cornell.edu/General/History/historyP6.html Cornell Math – Early History] Of these students, perhaps the most well known is C. L. E. Moore. Snyder served as president of the American Mathematical Society for a two-year term in 1927 and 1928.

He was an Invited Speaker of the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1928 at Bologna, in 1932 at Zurich,{{cite journal|title=International Congress of Mathematicians, Zurich, 1932|author=Richardson, R. G. D.|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=38|year=1932|issue=11 |pages=769–774|doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1932-05491-X|doi-access=free}} (See p. 772.) and in 1936 at Oslo.{{cite journal|title=The international Congress in Oslo|author=Morse, Marston|authorlink=Marston Morse|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=42|year=1936|issue=11 |pages=777–781|doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1936-06421-9|doi-access=free}} (See p. 780.)

Snyder did research on configurations of ruled surfaces and Cremona and birational transformations.{{cite journal|last=Coble|first= Arthur B.|authorlink=Arthur Byron Coble|title=Virgil Snyder, 1869–1950|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1950|volume=56|issue=5|pages=468–471|mr=1565227|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1950-09413-0|doi-access=free}}