Emil Artin

Emil Artin
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Name	Emil Artin
Birth date	March 3, 1898
Birth place	Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Death date	December 20, 1962
Death place	Hamburg, West Germany
Nationality	Austrian, German
Institution	University of Hamburg, University of Notre Dame

Emil Artin was a prominent mathematician known for his work in number theory, algebra, and geometry, with significant contributions to the development of class field theory and Galois theory, influenced by David Hilbert and Helmut Hasse. His research had a profound impact on the field of mathematics, with connections to the work of André Weil, Claude Chevalley, and Richard Brauer. Artin's work was also closely related to the Bourbaki group, a collective of mathematicians that included André Weil, Jean Dieudonné, and Laurent Schwartz. He was a key figure in the development of modern algebraic number theory, which has connections to the work of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Richard Dedekind, and Leopold Kronecker.

● Early Life and Education

Emil Artin was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, to Emanuel Artin, a Viennese art dealer, and Emma Laura (née Morsch, later Führer), and grew up in a family that valued arts and sciences, with connections to the Vienna Secession movement, which included artists like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. He began his education at the Theresianum in Vienna, where he developed an interest in mathematics and physics, inspired by the work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck. Artin then studied at the University of Vienna, where he was influenced by the work of Wilhelm Wirtinger and Philipp Furtwängler, and later at the University of Leipzig, where he was supervised by Otto Hölder and Leon Lichtenstein. During his time at Leipzig, Artin became acquainted with the work of David Hilbert and Felix Klein, which had a significant impact on his future research.

● Career

Artin's academic career began at the University of Hamburg, where he became a Privatdozent in 1923 and later a professor in 1925, working alongside Wilhelm Blaschke and Ernst Witt. He also held positions at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Princeton, where he interacted with mathematicians like Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann, and Marston Morse. Artin's research focused on number theory, algebraic geometry, and representation theory, with connections to the work of Emmy Noether, Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, and Heinrich Weber. He was also involved in the development of the Mathematisches Seminar at the University of Hamburg, which became a hub for mathematical research and collaboration, attracting visitors like André Weil and Laurent Schwartz.

● Contributions to Mathematics

Emil Artin made significant contributions to various areas of mathematics, including class field theory, Galois theory, and algebraic geometry, building on the work of David Hilbert, Helmut Hasse, and André Weil. His work on Artin's reciprocity law and the Artin L-function has had a lasting impact on the field of number theory, with connections to the work of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Richard Dedekind, and Leopold Kronecker. Artin also worked on representation theory, particularly in the context of finite groups and algebraic geometry, with connections to the work of Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, Issai Schur, and Richard Brauer. His research has influenced many mathematicians, including John Tate, Serre, and Alexander Grothendieck, and has connections to the development of étale cohomology and motivic cohomology.

● Personal Life

Emil Artin was married to Natascha Jasny, a Russian-born mathematician and daughter of Sergei Jasny, and had two sons, Michael Artin and Thomas Artin. The family moved to the United States in 1937, where Artin took a position at the University of Notre Dame, and later returned to Germany in 1958, where he became a professor at the University of Hamburg. Artin was known for his love of music and mountain climbing, and was an avid hiker and skier, often visiting the Alps and the Dolomites. He was also a member of the Mathematische Gesellschaft in Hamburg, which included mathematicians like Wilhelm Blaschke and Ernst Witt.

● Legacy

Emil Artin's legacy in mathematics is profound, with his work continuing to influence research in number theory, algebraic geometry, and representation theory, with connections to the work of Andrew Wiles, Richard Taylor, and Ngô Bảo Châu. The Artin conjecture and the Artin L-function remain important open problems in number theory, with connections to the work of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Richard Dedekind, and Leopold Kronecker. Artin's work has also had an impact on other areas of mathematics, such as algebraic K-theory and topology, with connections to the work of Hyman Bass, Daniel Quillen, and John Milnor. The Emil Artin International Conference is held regularly to honor his contributions to mathematics, and has featured speakers like Andrew Wiles, Richard Taylor, and Ngô Bảo Châu. Artin's work continues to be celebrated and built upon by mathematicians around the world, including those at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, the University of Cambridge, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.