- Gustav Roch
Gustav Roch (
december 9 1839 -november 21 1866 ) was a Germanmathematician who made significant contributions to the theory ofRiemann surfaces in a career that was prematurely curtailed at the age of 26.Biography
Born in
Leipzig , Roch attended the Polytechnic Institute (Technische Bildungsanstalt) inDresden , initially focusing onchemistry , encouraged by his father. However the mathematicianOscar Schlömilch identified his exceptional talents and guided him towards a mathematical career. Combining studies at the Polytechnic Institute with private studies at another institute enabled Roch to be already publishing original research on the mathematical theory ofelectromagnetism from 1859.Later in 1859, Roch entered the
University of Leipzig , coming under the influence of Möbius, and continuing his work on electromagnetism. In 1861, Roch went to work at theUniversity of Göttingen , studying underWeber , but also attending lectures byBernhard Riemann . After three terms inGöttingen , Roch went to theUniversity of Berlin , where he metKronecker ,Weierstrass and others. In 1862 he was awarded a masters degree from Leipzig and later a doctorate for his work on electromagnetism.From this point his work took a more mathematical slant. In the following year he published the paper containing the result for which he is famous to this day, the
Riemann–Roch theorem (given its name byMax Noether ), which related the topological genus of a Riemann surface to purely algebraic properties, .Only two years later, Roch's health was shattered due to a tuberculosis infection. He moved to
Venice in the hope that warmer weather would aid his recovery, but he died there a month later.External links
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* [http://www.mathematik.uni-halle.de/history/roch/index.html Biography at the University of Halle-Wittenburg]
*MathGenealogy|id=34186
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