{"id":1103,"date":"2016-05-25T14:24:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T19:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2018-03-14T09:03:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T14:03:02","slug":"happy-birthday-otto-neugebauer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2016\/05\/25\/happy-birthday-otto-neugebauer\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Otto Neugebauer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Otto<\/p>\n

Without\u00a0Otto Neugebauer<\/a>, there would be no MathSciNet<\/a>. \u00a0He was the founder of both\u00a0Zentralblatt f\u00fcr Mathematik<\/em>\u00a0(1931) and\u00a0Mathematical Reviews\u00a0<\/em>(1940). \u00a0 Neugebauer\u00a0lived an extraordinary life during extraordinary times. \u00a0He knew and worked with some of the great mathematicians of the twentieth century. \u00a0Neugebauer also left an impressive legacy as a historian of mathematics, with a specialization in ancient mathematics. \u00a0And\u00a0Neugebauer\u00a0was born on May 26,\u00a01899<\/span><\/strong> in Innsbruck, Austria – so it is time to celebrate his life and his legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Otto Neugebauer’s family moved to Graz, Austria when he was still young. \u00a0He attended the Akademisches Gymnasium in Graz, where he studied the sciences and mathematics, but was also required to learn Greek and Latin. \u00a0He learned that he could graduate without passing the Greek exam if he joined the army, which he did in 1917. \u00a0After leaving the army in 1919, he entered the University of Graz to study electrical engineering and physics. \u00a0In 1921, he transferred to the University of Munich. \u00a0In the fall of 1922, he went to the Mathematical Institute at the University of G\u00f6ttingen. \u00a0At the institute, he took courses from\u00a0Richard Courant (the director), Edmund Landau, and Emmy Noether. \u00a0In 1923 he became an assistant at the institute. \u00a0In 1924, he became Courant’s special assistant. \u00a0In 1924, he went to the University of Copenhagen, where he worked with Harald Bohr.<\/p>\n

By the time he came to write a thesis, Neugebauer’s interests had moved from mathematics to the history of mathematics. He completed his thesis in 1926<\/a>, titled\u00a0Die Grundlagen der \u00e4gyptischen Bruchrechnung (The foundations of Egyptian fractions), with Courant<\/a> and Hilbert<\/a> as his advisors. \u00a0In 1929, Neugebauer,\u00a0with\u00a0Otto Toeplitz<\/a> and Julius Stenzel<\/a>, founded the journal\u00a0Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik Astronomie und Physik<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics, Astronomy, and Physics). \u00a0Neugebauer’s interests expanded to Babylonian mathematics. \u00a0The man who once joined the army to avoid taking an exam in Greek by now\u00a0had learned\u00a0both Egyptian and Akkadian, the language of the ancient Babylonians.<\/p>\n

In 1931, Neugebauer founded\u00a0Zentralblatt fu\u0308r Mathematik und ihre Grenzgebiete. \u00a0<\/em> In 1932, with Courant, he founded the book series\u00a0Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete<\/em>. \u00a0In 1933, with Fl\u00fcgge<\/a>, he founded\u00a0Zentralblatt fu\u0308r Mechanik.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1933, \u00a0the National Socialists\u00a0came to power in Germany. \u00a0 As a liberal and internationally minded person, Neugebauer began having\u00a0problems. \u00a0In the biography of Neugebauer for the National Academy of Science, Noel Swerdlow writes:<\/p>\n

A Nazi official once requested that he [Neugebauer] explain why he was in Leningrad in 1928, since it might be thought he was secretly a \u00a0Bolshevik. \u00a0His answer was to point out that in 1930 he was at the Vatican, so perhaps they might suspect that he was secretly a Jesuit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Harald Bohr arranged a position for Neugebauer at the University of Copenhagen. \u00a0For a time, he ran\u00a0Zentralblatt\u00a0<\/em> from Copenhagen, with it being published by Springer in Berlin. \u00a0In 1938,\u00a0he began to be pressured to\u00a0increase the\u00a0number of reviews in German (and by Germans) in\u00a0Zentralblatt<\/em>. \u00a0By the end of the year, Levi-Civita had been removed from the editorial board. \u00a0Neugebauer was told that the work of German mathematicians should no longer be reviewed by “emigrants”. \u00a0 In response, Neugebauer orchestrated a mass resignation of the editorial board, as well as the resignation of many of the reviewers. \u00a0\u00a0Zentralblatt\u00a0<\/em> continued to be published in a much reduced state until 1944, when it stopped publication altogether. \u00a0(It restarted in 1948 and is now zbMATH<\/a>.) \u00a0There was still a need for a reviewing journal.<\/p>\n

In the United States, mathematicians began working to establish an alternative reviewing journal. \u00a0Oswald Veblen1<\/sup> was a major player in this attempt, and worked with leaders from the American Mathematical Society. \u00a0A plan was hatched to bring Neugebauer to Brown University as a professor in the Mathematics Department, with the intention that he would also found a new reviewing journal. \u00a0Neugebauer arrived in the United States in 1939. \u00a0The first issue<\/a> of\u00a0Mathematical Reviews<\/em> was published in January 1940. \u00a0Neugebauer soon passed the editorship to Jacob Tamarkin<\/a>, \u00a0and continued his own extensive research on the history of mathematics and astronomy. \u00a0In 1947, he established the History of Mathematics Department at Brown University<\/a>, building it into a powerhouse of research in the history of science. \u00a0Notable members included Abraham Sachs<\/a>, Richard Parker<\/a>, Gerald Toomer<\/a>, and David Pingree<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A story that Ralph Boas<\/a> (and others) enjoyed telling was of a mathematician who complained that\u00a0Neugebauer had written in English instead\u00a0of Neugebauer’s own “mother tongue.” Neugebauer replied that\u00a0it was not a question\u00a0of Neugebauer’s mother’s language, but of his secretary’s. \u00a0Neugebauer went on to point out that while he was editor of\u00a0Zentralblatt<\/em>, no American mathematician had asked him to use English.<\/p>\n

The European Mathematical Society<\/a> has established the Otto Neugebauer\u00a0Prize<\/a> in the history of mathematics. \u00a0The prize was first awarded\u00a0in 2012 at the Sixth European Congress of Mathematicians\u00a0in Krakow to\u00a0Jan P. Hogendijk<\/a>, who has published 145 reviews in MathSciNet, from 1993 to the present.\u00a0The next prize will be awarded\u00a0July 18-22, 2016 in Berlin during the Seventh European Congress of Mathematicians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I strongly recommend that you find out more about Otto Neugebauer. \u00a0He lived a remarkable life. \u00a0 Here are some suggestions for further reading:<\/p>\n