Lars Valerian Ahlfors’s Followers (9)

Lars Valerian Ahlfors

Born

in Helsinki, Finland

April 18, 1907

Died

October 11, 1996

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Lars Valerian Ahlfors, William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics, died of pneumonia on Oct. 11 in Pittsfield, Mass., at the age of 89. Ahlfors won the first Fields Medal awarded by the International Mathematics Society in 1936, a quadrennial award considered equivalent, in mathematics, to the Nobel Prize. In 1979, he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize in Jerusalem. Ahlfors was best known for his work in complex analysis, a fundamental subject with many applications from number theory to modern physics. His textbook, Complex Analysis, first published in 1953, with new editions in 1966 and 1979, is still considered the leading text in the field. He wrote three other mathematical books and published almost 100 papers. Colleagues an Lars Valerian Ahlfors, William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics, died of pneumonia on Oct. 11 in Pittsfield, Mass., at the age of 89. Ahlfors won the first Fields Medal awarded by the International Mathematics Society in 1936, a quadrennial award considered equivalent, in mathematics, to the Nobel Prize. In 1979, he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize in Jerusalem. Ahlfors was best known for his work in complex analysis, a fundamental subject with many applications from number theory to modern physics. His textbook, Complex Analysis, first published in 1953, with new editions in 1966 and 1979, is still considered the leading text in the field. He wrote three other mathematical books and published almost 100 papers. Colleagues and students have described his work as extraordinarily elegant, and his lectures, delivered in thundering basso, as stunningly beautiful. Ahlfors was born in Helsinki, Finland, in 1907. As he often observed, his mother's death during his birth critically influenced his life. His father, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute, was attentive but stern. In the brief autobiographical note that introduced his collected papers, published in 1982, he wrote that, "As a child, I was fascinated by mathematics without understanding what it was about, but I was by no means a child prodigy. As a matter of fact, I had no access to any mathematical literature except in the highest grades. . . . The high school curriculum did not include any calculus but I finally managed to learn some on my own, thanks to clandestine visits to my father's engineering library." Ahlfors' introduction to higher mathematics, including complex analysis, came from his mentors at Helsinki University, Ernst Lindelof and Rolf Nevanlinna. At 21, Ahlfors followed Nevanlinna to the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, where he began working at a research level. There he produced his first major work, a study of asymptotic values of an entire function, based on his own new approach to conformal mapping. Self-effacingly, Ahlfors credited Nevanlinna and another teacher, George Polya, for their "considerable help." They, in turn, insisted that he publish the results solely in his own name. Thereafter, as he expressed it, "I have tried to repay my debt by never accepting to appear as coauthor with a student." ...more

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Lars Valerian Ahlfors’s books

Average rating: 3.9 · 119 ratings · 13 reviews · 18 distinct works • Similar authors

	Complex Analysis: An Introduction to the Theory of Analytic Functions of One Complex Variable 3.91 avg rating — 102 ratings — published 1978 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lectures on Quasiconformal Mappings (University Lecture Series) 3.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1987 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Conformal Invariants: Topics in Geometric Function Theory (McGraw-Hill series in higher mathematics) 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1973 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lars Valerian Ahlfors: Collected Papers, 1929-1955 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1982 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Contributions to the Theory of Riemann Surfaces (Annals of Mathematics Studies, 30) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1953 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Riemann Surfaces: (PMS-26) (Princeton Mathematical Series, 58) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1960 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Contributions to Analysis. A Collection of Papers Dedicated to Lipman Bers it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1974 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Analytic Functions by Lars Valerian Ahlfors, Nevanlinna it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1960 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Advances in the Theory of Riemann Surfaces. (Am-66), Volume 66 by Lars Valerian Ahlfors, Lipman Bers liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1970 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Collected Papers Vol 1-2 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1982 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars