David Hilbert
23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943
David Hilbert was a German mathematician and one of the most influential figures in modern mathematics. He made foundational contributions to many fields, including invariant theory, the axiomatization of geometry, functional analysis, and mathematical logic. He is especially remembered for his 1900 list of 23 unsolved problems that shaped much of twentieth-century mathematical research.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with David Hilbert.
- Charles Sherrington (1857–1952) Overlapped 81 years →
- Max Planck (1858–1947) Overlapped 81 years →
- Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Overlapped 81 years →
- David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Overlapped 80 years →
- Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Overlapped 80 years →
- Leo Baekeland (1863–1944) Overlapped 80 years →
Life events
David Hilbert was born near Königsberg in the Kingdom of Prussia.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe earned his PhD from the University of Königsberg with a dissertation on invariant theory.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe joined the University of Göttingen, which became a leading world center of mathematics under his influence.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe published Grundlagen der Geometrie, providing a rigorous modern axiomatic basis for Euclidean geometry.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAt the Paris congress he presented a list of 23 unsolved problems that guided much of twentieth-century mathematics.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis work on integral equations laid the groundwork for the concept of Hilbert space in functional analysis.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe championed a formalist program to establish the consistency of mathematics through finitary methods.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe retired from his professorship at Göttingen, witnessing the dispersal of its mathematics faculty under Nazi rule.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe died in Göttingen in 1943 during the Second World War.
Source: en.wikipedia.org