Description
Book SynopsisTells the story of the Finnish-American mathematician Lars Ahlfors (1907-1996). At 21 Ahlfors became a well-known mathematician having solved Denjoy's conjecture, and in 1936 he established his world renown when he was awarded the Fields Medal. This book avoids technical details and concentrates on his contributions to the general development of complex analysis.
Trade ReviewAhlfors was a living legend, and although he was known to outsiders, i.e. non analysts, primarily through the effect of his [classic text on complex analysis], there was, and is, a lot more to be told about his fascinating life. We now have a compact, readable, and mathematically meaningful biography by Olli Lehto, another Finn, another analyst, another member of Nevanlinna's circle, and a very close friend of Ahlfors. It doesn't get any better than that." -
MAA Online"...Olli Lehto has given us a first-rate biography, running from a brief review of Ahlfors’ ancestry through to his centennial celebration. Lehto has succeeded in avoiding the twin pitfalls of so much information as to risk being tedious, or so much brevity as to leave the reader with nothing to work with. Instead we are given enough insight to feel that we have got to know Ahlfors as a person, and some notion of the mathematics he created. We also get some understanding into the world events which helped shaped Ahlfors’ life and career, and the many eminent mathematicians, particularly from complex analysis, with whom he worked over the course of his long research career." -
London Mathematical Society NewsletterTable of Contents
- Family background
- Exceptional talent emerges
- Mathematical renown secured
- To America and back again
- War years in Finland
- In Sweden and Switzerland
- Professorship at Harvard University
- The legacy of Riemann and Teichmuller
- New research and return to the old
- Distinctions
- Additions to the portrait
- Epilogue in Finland
- Sources
- Index
