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Wilhelm Magnus
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<h2 id="biography">Biography</h2> <p>In 1931, Magnus received his PhD from the <a href="/facts/Goethe_University_Frankfurt/76b0rJfI">University of Frankfurt</a> in <a href="/facts/Germany/paluuWBX">Germany</a>. His thesis, written under the direction of <a href="/facts/Max_Dehn/4x7x0CM0">Max Dehn</a>, was entitled <a href="/facts/Freiheitssatz/vAfjztb6"><i>Über unendlich diskontinuierliche Gruppen von einer definierenden Relation (der Freiheitssatz)</i></a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> </p><p>Magnus was a faculty member in Frankfurt from 1933 until 1938. He refused to join the <a href="/facts/Nazi_Party/qQCramHd">Nazi Party</a> and, as a consequence, was not allowed to hold an academic post during <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a>. In 1947, he became a professor at the <a href="/facts/University_of_G%C3%B6ttingen/UTUodvX1">University of Göttingen</a>. </p><p>In 1948, he emigrated to the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> to collaborate on the <a href="/facts/Bateman_Manuscript_Project/L3MHa2fg">Bateman Manuscript Project</a> as a co-editor while a visiting professor at the <a href="/facts/California_Institute_of_Technology/3FPcp7BL">California Institute of Technology</a>. In 1950, he was appointed professor at the <a href="/facts/Courant_Institute_of_Mathematical_Sciences/YVrKYzSN">Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences</a> in <a href="/facts/New_York_University/4UnIkThy">New York University</a>. He stayed there until 1973, when he moved to the <a href="/facts/Polytechnic_University_of_New_York/xo5c9hFF">Polytechnic Institute of New York</a>, before retiring in 1978. His doctoral students include <a href="/facts/Joan_Birman/ceIIseYm">Joan Birman</a>, Martin Greendlinger, <a href="/facts/Edna_Grossman/GpFEmjLM">Edna Grossman</a>, <a href="/facts/Herbert_Keller/cuImT74a">Herbert Keller</a>, <a href="/facts/Seymour_Lipschutz/lpf9648a">Seymour Lipschutz</a>, and Kathryn F. Kuiken.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Magnus_expansion/2yxdkGmx">Magnus expansion</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Magnus%E2%80%93Moldavansky_method/KC8ayWbQ">Magnus–Moldavansky method</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Commutator_collecting_process/f1IefaGS">Commutator collecting process</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Free_Lie_algebra/oayt2vkt">Free Lie algebra</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Hall_word/twm046uI">Hall word</a></li></ul> <h2 id="selected-works">Selected works</h2> <ul><li>with <a href="/facts/Gilbert_Baumslag/h67QyCIp">Gilbert Baumslag</a> and Bruce Chandler, eds.: <i>Wilhelm Magnus, Collected Papers.</i> Springer-Verlag 1984.</li> <li><i>Noneuclidean tessellations and their groups.</i> Academic Press 1974.</li> <li>with Bruce Chandler: <i>The History of Combinatorial Group Theory. A Case Study in the History of Ideas.</i> Springer 1982.</li> <li>Wilhelm Magnus, Abraham Karrass, Donald Solitar, <i>Combinatorial group theory. Presentations of groups in terms of generators and relations</i>, Reprint of the 1976 second edition, <a href="/facts/Dover_Publications,_Inc./RwjvlSFv">Dover Publications, Inc.</a>, Mineola, NY, 2004. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-486-43830-9</li> <li>Wilhelm Magnus, Stanley Winkler, <i>Hill's equation</i>, Reprint of the 1979 second edition, <a href="/facts/Dover_Publications,_Inc./RwjvlSFv">Dover Publications, Inc.</a>, Mineola, NY, 2004. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-486-49565-5.</li> <li>with Israel Grossman: <i>Groups and their Graphs.</i> <a href="/facts/Random_House/NcR9r1F1">Random House</a> (New Mathematical Library 14) 1965.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Arthur_Erd%C3%A9lyi/LC2upm0N">Erdélyi, Arthur</a>; Magnus, Wilhelm; Oberhettinger, Fritz [in German]; <a href="/facts/Francesco_Tricomi/R8Gb0meg">Tricomi, Francesco G.</a> (1955), <i>Higher transcendental functions. Vols. I-III</i>, <a href="/facts/McGraw-Hill/oG8VpKJT">McGraw-Hill</a> (The <a href="/facts/Bateman_Manuscript_Project/L3MHa2fg">Bateman Manuscript Project</a>: <a href="http://www.nr.com/legacybooks">scan</a>)</li> <li>Wilhelm Magnus, Fritz Oberhettinger [de], and Raz Pal Soni, <i>Formulas and Theorems for the Special Functions of Mathematical Physics</i>. Springer-Verlag New York Inc., New York, 1966.</li> <li>with Fritz Oberhettinger: <i>Formeln und Sätze für die speziellen Funktionen der mathematischen Physik.</i> Springer 1943; 2nd edition, 1948; 3rd edition in English, <i>Formulas and theorems for the functions of mathematical physics</i>, Chelsea Pub. Co. 1966.</li> <li>with Fritz Oberhettinger: <i>Anwendungen der elliptischen Funktionen in Physik und Technik.</i> Springer 1949.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li><i><a href="http://bookstore.ams.org/conm-169">The Mathematical Legacy of Wilhelm Magnus</a>: Groups, Geometry, and Special Functions</i>. Conference on the Legacy of Wilhelm Magnus May 1–3, 1992 .</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=12042">Wilhelm Magnus</a> at the <a href="/facts/Mathematics_Genealogy_Project/J7AFo1Do">Mathematics Genealogy Project</a></li> <li>O'Connor, John J.; <a href="/facts/Edmund_F._Robertson/jQMcnY79">Robertson, Edmund F.</a>, <a href="https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Magnus.html">"Wilhelm Magnus"</a>, <i><a href="/facts/MacTutor_History_of_Mathematics_Archive/xtwLmN5q">MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive</a></i>, <a href="/facts/University_of_St_Andrews/IwXjmljw">University of St Andrews</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Wilhelm Magnus at the Mathematics Genealogy Project <a href="https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=12042" target="_blank">https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=12042</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Kathryn F. Kuiken". <a href="https://www.mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=24392" target="_blank">https://www.mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=24392</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Seidel, Wladimir (1951). "Review: Anwendung der elliptischen Funktionen in Physik und Technik by F. Oberhettinger and W. Magnus" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 57 (3): 204–205. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1951-09493-8. <a href="/wiki/Wladimir_Seidel" target="_blank">/wiki/Wladimir_Seidel</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>