- Herbert Seifert
Herbert Karl Johannes Seifert (
May 27 ,1907 –October 1 ,1996 ) was a Germanmathematician known for his work intopology .He was born in
Bernstadt , but soon moved toBautzen , where he attended primary school at the Knabenbürgerschule, and secondary school at the Oberrealschule.In 1926 Seifert entered the Dresden University of Technology. The next year he attended a course on
topology given byWilliam Threlfall . This would be the beginning both of his lifelong work in the subject and his friendship with Threlfall. In the year 1928-29 he visited theUniversity of Göttingen , where topologists such asPavel Sergeevich Alexandrov andHeinz Hopf were working.In 1930 he received his doctorate. He then moved to the
University of Leipzig , where he received his second doctorate in 1932. It was here that Seifert submitted his dissertation, "Topology of 3-dimensional fibred spaces", on1 February 1932 , and he was awarded with this doctorate of philosophy after his oral examination onMarch 3 .Seifert continued to collaborate with Threlfall, and in 1934 (the year Seifert received his habilitation) they published "Lehrbuch Der Topologie". In 1938 they published "Variationsrechnung Im Grossen".
In 1935, Seifert was summoned to a post at the
University of Heidelberg , where he took a position vacated by the dismissal of a Jewish professor. During World War II he volunteered for a position at an Air Force research center, the Institut für Gasdynamik. After the war, Seifert was one of the few German professors whom the allies trusted during the period ofdenazification .In the year 1948-49 Seifert visited the
Institute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey . On13 September 1949 , soon after returning to Germany, he married Katharina Korn.Seifert retired in 1975. His students include
Albrecht Dold andDieter Puppe .ee also
*
Seifert fiber space
*Seifert surface
*Seifert-van Kampen theorem
*Seifert conjecture
*Seifert-Weber space External links
*MathGenealogy |id=15668
*MacTutor Biography|id=Seifert
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