Niels Henrik Abel

5 August 1802 – 6 April 1829

Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829) was a Norwegian mathematician who proved the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals and made pioneering contributions to elliptic functions and analysis. Working in poverty for most of his short life, he died of tuberculosis at twenty-six, two days before a letter arrived offering him a professorship in Berlin.

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Life events

Born on the island of Finnøy, Norway
5 August 1802

Abel was born the son of a poor Lutheran pastor in Nedstrand parish, growing up in Gjerstad.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Entered the Cathedral School in Christiania
1815

At thirteen Abel was sent to school in Christiania (Oslo), where teacher Bernt Michael Holmboe recognized and nurtured his mathematical talent.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Enrolled at the Royal Frederick University
1821

Abel entered the university in Christiania, supported financially by his professors after his father's death left the family destitute.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Proved the insolvability of the general quintic equation
1824

Abel published a proof that no general algebraic solution in radicals exists for polynomial equations of degree five, completing the Abel-Ruffini theorem.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Traveled to Berlin and befriended August Leopold Crelle
September 1825

On a state travel grant Abel went to Berlin, where Crelle published many of his papers in the newly founded Journal fur die reine und angewandte Mathematik.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Visited Paris and submitted his memoir on transcendental functions
July 1826

Abel presented his great memoir containing Abel's theorem to the French Academy of Sciences, where it was mislaid and not published until after his death.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Published pioneering work on elliptic functions
1827

In his final years Abel developed the theory of elliptic functions in a celebrated rivalry with Carl Gustav Jacobi.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Died of tuberculosis at Froland, Norway
6 April 1829

Abel died at the Froland ironworks at age twenty-six; two days later a letter arrived announcing his appointment to a professorship in Berlin.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓