Leopold Vietoris

Topology Atlas Document # topd-21

Leopold Vietoris

the world's oldest living mathematician (famous for his topology on space of subsets) and probably the oldest living Austrian male.

From TopCom, Volume 6, #2

The press release that follows was sent to Judith Grabiner by many individuals on the history of mathematics mailing list. and relayed to me by her If you want rapid answers to questions on the history of mathematics, sending them to historia-matematica@chasque.apc.org is a good idea.

The article that follows appeared soon after his 110th birthday. An English translation of it due to Prof. Robert Burckel of Kansas State University also appears. Even though the article is brief, translation is always time consuming.

According to Partick D. F. Ion of Mathematical Reviews, Vietoris published his last paper at the age of 104. He was also an accomplished mountain climber and became an expert on the formation of glaciers in his later years

For the original press release see http://www2.uibk.ac.at/service/c115/presse/2001/40-01.html

Celebration of the 110th Birthday of Prof. Leopold Vietoris

Prof. Leopold Vietoris, born on the 4th of June 1891, celebrates, along with the whole University of Innsbruck, his 110th birthday. As Austria's oldest citizen he deserves to be honored, not just for this advanced age, but also on account of his service as teacher, scientist, and trailblazer of technical mathematics.

On the occasion of the 110th birthday of Vietoris, the Institute for Mathematics is hosting a press conference with the theme "The jubilarian and the direction of study of technical mathematics," at which the honoree himself, depending on his health at the time, will be present. At its conclusion there will be a Fest Colloquium of the Mathematics and Physics Society at which honorary membership in the society will be conferred on the jubilarian. After a laudation from Prof. H. Reitberger, one of his former students, and from the Rector H. Moser, there will be a round of toasting.

We cordially invite your participation in the press conference, the colloquium and the Wine Academy (vinum academicum).

Press conference:
Time: Wednesday, June 6, 2001, 4:30 P.M.
Place: Technikerstrasse 25, Viktor Franz Heuss Haus, HS 7/26

Colloquium:
Time: Wednesday, June 6, 2001, 5:15 P.M.
Place: Technikerstrasse 25, Viktor Franz Heuss Haus,
Astronomy Practicum Room 8/18

Leopold Vietoris was born on the 4th of June 1891 in Radkersburg. After graduating from the Benedictine Gymnasium in Melk, he studied mathematics and descriptive geometry at the Vienna Technische Hochschule. In July 1920, he earned his doctorate from the University of Vienna, under G.V. Escherich and W. Wirtinger; two years later, on the strength of his third publication, he also received his Habilitation there. In the summer semester 1925, supported by a Rockefeller Foundation grant, Vietoris embarked on a three-semester stay with L.E. J. Brouwer in Amsterdam; from there he was soon summoned by Innsbruck to an untenured professorship. In 1928 he returned to the TH in Vienna as a tenure-track professor and in 1930 he settled permanently as a tenured professor at Innsbruck.

His work to date includes 80 titles. The best-known creation of the jubilarian, known today as the Meyer-Vietoris sequence, goes back to his paper "Uber die Homologiegruppen der Vereinigung zweier Komplexe." His most recent publications were generated at the youthful age of 104 and were used by a world-leader in mathematics, Richard Askey, in "Vietoris's inequalities and hypergeometric series."

More detailed information from
Prof. Heinrich Reitberger, Tel. 0512/507/6074
e-mail: Heinrich.Reitberger@uibk.ac.at