Rudolf Otto Sigismund Lipschitz

https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd11881656X.html#ndbcontent

Lipschitz, Rudolf Mathematiker, * 14.5.1832 Königsberg (Preußen), † 7.10.1903 Bonn. (evangelisch)

Genealogie V Samuel (isr., dann ev.), Rittergutsbes. auf Bönkeim Kr. Preuß. Eylau, S d. Selig ben Nochem, Manufakturwarengroßhändler in K.; M Philippine Auerbach (isr., dann ev.); ⚭ 1857 Ida Pascha (1832–1922), T e. Gutsbes. in Wisdehnen Kr. Preuß. Eylau; 1 S, 3 T.

Empfohlene Zitierweise Strubecker, Karl, "Lipschitz, Rudolf" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 14 (1985), S. 673-674 [Online-Version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd11881656X.html#ndbcontent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Lipschitz

Rudolf Otto Sigismund Lipschitz (14 May 1832 – 7 October 1903) was a German mathematician and professor at the University of Bonn from 1864. Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was his teacher. He supervised the early work of Felix Klein. While Lipschitz gave his name to the Lipschitz continuity condition, he worked in a broad range of areas. These included number theory, algebras with involution, mathematical analysis, differential geometry and classical mechanics.

He wrote: Lehrbuch der Analysis (two volumes, Bonn 1877, 1880); Wissenschaft und Staat (Bonn, 1874); Untersuchungen über die Summen von Quadraten (Bonn, 1886); Bedeutung der theoretischen Mechanik (Berlin, 1876).

Lipschitz was born the son of a landowner and was raised at his father's estate at Bönkein which was near Königsberg. He grew up a sickly child but nonetheless entered the University of Königsberg at a young age, graduating with a PhD in 1853. In 1857 he married Ida Pascha, the daughter of one of the landowners with an estate near to his father's. Then in 1862 he became an extraordinary professor at Breslau.[1]

Contents [show] Rediscovery of Clifford algebra[edit] Lipschitz discovered Clifford algebras in 1880,[2][3] two years after William K. Clifford (1845–1879) and independently of him, and he was the first to use them in the study of orthogonal transformations. Up to 1950 people mentioned “Clifford-Lipschitz numbers” when they referred to this discovery of Lipschitz. Yet Lipschitz’s name suddenly disappeared from the publications involving Clifford algebras; for instance Claude Chevalley (1909–1984)[4] gave the name “Clifford group” to an object that is never mentioned in Clifford’s works, but stems from Lipschitz’s. Pertti Lounesto (1945–2002) contributed greatly to recalling the importance of Lipschitz’s role.[5][6]