Winfried Scharlau

Scharlau received his doctorate in 1967 from the University of Bonn. His doctoral thesis Quadratische Formen und Galois-Cohomologie (Quadratic Forms and Galois Cohomology) was supervised by Friedrich Hirzebruch.{{MathGenealogy|id=22860|name=Winfried Scharlau}}{{cite journal|last1=Scharlau|first1=Winfried|title=Quadratische Formen und Galois-Cohomologie|journal=Inventiones Mathematicae|volume=4|issue=4|year=1967|pages=238–264|issn=0020-9910|doi=10.1007/BF01425383|bibcode=1967InMat...4..238S |s2cid=121015744 }} Scharlau was at the Institute for Advanced Study for the academic year 1969–1970 and in spring 1972.{{cite web|title=Winfried Scharlau|website=Institute for Advanced Study|date=9 December 2019 |url=https://www.ias.edu/scholars/winfried-scharlau}} From 1970 he was a professor (most recent Institutsdirektor) at the University of Münster, from where he retired.

Scharlau's research deals with number theory and, in particular, the theory of quadratic forms, about which he wrote a 1985 monograph Quadratic and Hermitian Forms in Springer's series Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften.{{cite book|author=Scharlau, W.|title=Quadratic and Hermitian Forms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c27pCAAAQBAJ|date=6 December 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-642-69971-9|postscript=; pbk reprint of 1985 original}}{{cite journal|last1=Lam|first1=T. Y.|authorlink=Tsit Yuen Lam|title=Book Review: Quadratic and Hermitian forms by Winfried Scharlau|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society|volume=21|issue=1|year=1989|pages=121–126|issn=0273-0979|doi=10.1090/S0273-0979-1989-15785-6|doi-access=free}}

Scharlau was also an amateur ornithologist and author of two novels, I megali istoria - die große Geschichte (2nd edition 2001), set on the Greek island of Naxos, and Scharife (2001), set on the island of Zanzibar in the 19th century.{{cite web|title=Buchpublikation von Scharlau|date=2 May 2023 |url=http://www.scharlau-online.de/publikationen.html}} He also deals with the history of mathematics and wrote, with Hans Opolka,Hans Opolka (b. 1949) is a German professor of mathematics, specializing in algebra and number theory. {{MathGenealogy|id=21929|name=Hans Opolka}} a historically-oriented introduction to number theory. Their book presents, among other topics, the analytical class number formula of Dirichlet and the geometry of the numbers in the 19th century.{{cite book|author1=Scharlau, W.|author2=Opolka, H.|title=From Fermat to Minkowski: Lectures on the Theory of Numbers and Its Historical Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOXgBwAAQBAJ|date=9 March 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4757-1867-6|postscript=; pbk reprint of 1985 translation of the 1980 German original}} Scharlau wrote a multi-part biography of Alexander Grothendieck.

Scharlau was a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. From 1991 to 1992 he was president of the German Mathematical Society. In 1974 he was invited as speaker with talks On subspaces of inner product spaces at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Vancouver.{{cite book|author=Scharlau, W.|year=1975|chapter=On subspaces of inner product spaces|title=Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians|volume=I|pages=331–335}}

He was the father of the cognitive psychologist Ingrid Scharlau.{{cite web|title=Winfried Scharlau im Internet|url=http://www.scharlau-online.de/}}

• with Friedrich Hirzebruch: Einführung in die Funktionalanalysis, BI, Mannheim 1971, {{ISBN|978-3-411-00296-2}}, [http://hirzebruch.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/117/1/M5.pdf Hirzebruch Collection] (PDF)
• {{cite journal|title=Quadratic reciprocity laws|journal=Journal of Number Theory|volume=4|issue=1|year=1972|pages=78–97|issn=0022-314X|doi=10.1016/0022-314X(72)90012-1|doi-access=free|last1=Scharlau |first1=Winfried |bibcode=1972JNT.....4...78S }}
• with H.-G. Quebbemann and Manfred Schultz: [https://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~v1ranick/papers/quebbemann2.pdf Quadratic and Hermitian forms in additive and abelian categories], Journal of Algebra vol. 59, no. 2, 264-289 1979
• with Manfred Knebusch: [https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/12787/1/ubr05112_ocr.pdf Algebraic theory of quadratic forms: generic methods and Pfister forms], vol. 1. Birkhäuser, 1980 (DMV Seminary, notes taken by Heisook Lee)
• with Hans Opolka: Von Fermat bis Minkowski. Eine Vorlesung über die Zahlentheorie und ihre Entwicklung. Springer, Berlin 1980
• Richard Dedekind 1831/1981. Vieweg, Braunschweig [et alia loca] 1981
• Quadratic and Hermitian Forms. Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften 270. Springer, Berlin [et alia loca] 1985
• Mathematische Institute in Deutschland 1800–1945. Dokumente zur Geschichte der Mathematik. Vieweg, Braunschweig [et alia loca] 1990
• Schulwissen Mathematik. Ein Überblick. Vieweg, Braunschweig [et alia loca] 1994
• Beiträge zur Vogelwelt der südlichen Ägäis. Verlag C. Lienau, 1999
• {{cite book|chapter=On the history of the algebraic theory of quadratic forms|volume=272|year=2000|pages=229–259|issn=1098-3627|doi=10.1090/conm/272/04406|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWobCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA229|title=Quadratic Forms and Their Applications |series=Contemporary Mathematics |last1=Scharlau |first1=Winfried |isbn=9780821827796 }}
• Mathematik für Naturwissenschaftler. LIT Verlag, Münster 2005
• {{citation|surname1=Winfried Scharlau|title=Wer ist Alexander Grothendieck? Anarchie, Mathematik, Spiritualität, Einsamkeit|edition=3.|volume=Teil 1. Anarchie|publisher=Books on Demand|publication-place=Norderstedt|isbn=978-3-8423-7147-7|date=2011|language=German

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• {{citation|surname1=Winfried Scharlau|title=Wer ist Alexander Grothendieck? Anarchie, Mathematik, Spiritualität, Einsamkeit|volume=Teil 3. Spiritualität|publisher=Books on Demand|publication-place=Norderstedt|isbn=978-3-8391-4939-3|date=2010|language=German

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• {{citation|surname1=Winfried Scharlau|title=Das Glück, Mathematiker zu sein. Friedrich Hirzebruch und seine Zeit|publisher=Springer Spektrum|publication-place=Wiesbaden|isbn=978-3-658-14756-3|date=2016|language=German

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• {{DNB-Portal|1139220624|NAME=Winfried Scharlau}}
• [http://wwwmath.uni-muenster.de/u/scharlau/scharlau/index.html#veroe website at the University of Münster]
• https://www.trauer.ms/traueranzeige/winfried-scharlau-2020-11-26-havixbeck-9312841

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Category:1940 births

Category:2020 deaths

Category:Algebraists

Category:20th-century German mathematicians

Category:21st-century German mathematicians

Category:University of Bonn alumni

Category:Academic staff of the University of Münster

Category:Presidents of the German Mathematical Society