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Biographical Memoirs Volume 82 (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Richard Courant
Pages 78-97

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From page 79...
... Six years after Courant the young Heinz Hopf enterecl the gymnasium in Breslau en cl came uncler the tutelage of Maschke, who trained his special pupils by posing challenging problems. Many years later Hopf recalled!
From page 80...
... After the gymnasium Courant was really to attend university lectures on mathematics en c! physics at the University of Breslau.
From page 81...
... He was fascinated not only by its use in theory but also by the possibility of basing numerical calculations on it, as was clone by the young physicist Walther Ritz. Courant likes!
From page 82...
... They were joined in Gottingen by Courant's favorite intellectual cousin from BresTau, Eclith Stein, who became a student en cl later assistant to the philosopher HusserI. She attained martyrdom as a few en cl posthumous fame as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, canonizer!
From page 83...
... Equally important was the new book series "Grundlehren," affectionately known as the Yellow Peril for its yellow cover. After the war Courant was offerer!
From page 84...
... It was basecl on lecture notes of Hilbert but even more on Courant's own research in the past five years. The book starts with a 40-page chapter on linear algebra, presented from an analytic point of view, so that generalization to infinite dimension comes naturally.
From page 85...
... In 1928 Courant, Friecirichs, en cl Lewy publishecl their famous paper on the partial difference equations of mathematical physics. The main motivation for writing it was to use finite difference approximations to prove the existence of solutions of partial clifferential equations.
From page 86...
... The International Eclucational Boarcl of the Rockefeller Foundation agreed to supply $350,000, and the Prussian Ministry of Education agreed to cover the maintenance costs. The builcling of the institute was finished en cl cleclicatecl in 1929.
From page 87...
... A solution of this classical problem hacl been founcl earlier by Jesse Douglas, en cl in another way by Tibor Raclo, but the elegance and simplicity of Courant's method had opened the way to attack more general problems concerning minimal surfaces, such as minimal surfaces spanning multiple contours, of higher genus, and having part of their boundary restricted to a prescribed surface. Courant pursuccl these generalizations cluring the next 10 years.
From page 88...
... by Courant en cl Robbins appeared, a highly popular book written "for beginners en cl scholars, for students en c! teachers, for philosophers en c!
From page 89...
... Courant supervised many graduate students' doctoral dissertations, more than 20 in Gottingen and a like number at NYU. Among the former were Kurt Friedrichs, Edgar Krahn, Reinhold Baer, Hans Lewy, Otto Neugebauer, Willi Feller, Franz Rellich, Rudolf Luneburg, Herbert Busemann, and Leifur Asgeirson.
From page 90...
... by statesmen: racier, the proximity fuse, bombsights, code breaking, aerodynamic design, and the atomic bomb. Courant also realizecl that appliecl mathematics wouic!
From page 91...
... The book ends with a 30-page essay written by Courant on icleal functions, such as distributions. The last chapter in the German original, on existence proofs using variational methods, was omitted.
From page 92...
... to construct a handsome 13-story buiTcIing just off Washington Square, in which the Courant Institute, so namecl at its cleclication in 1965, still nestles. Its architects won all kincis of prizes en c!
From page 93...
... pure spirit were cleeply necessary to Courant. There was Otto Neugebauer, a meticulous en cl workaholic scholar, about whom Courant sail!
From page 94...
... Again Friecirichs: As a person Richard Courant cannot be measured by any common standard. Think of it: a mathematician who hated logic, who abhorred abstractions, who was suspicious of truth if it was just bare truth.
From page 95...
... Such, in part, is the nature of the intellectual adventure and the satisfaction experienced by the mathematician who works with engineers and natural scientists on the mastering of the real problems that arise in so many places as man extends his understanding and control of nature. Those who wish to fine!
From page 96...
... 1920 .. Uber die Eigenwerte bei den Differenzialgleichungen der mathematischen Physik.
From page 97...
... Supersonic Flow and Shock Waves. Wiley-Interscience.


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