Julius Wolff (mathematician)

Not to be confused with Julius Wolff (writer).

Julius Wolff
Julius Wolff 1882 - 1945
Born(1882-04-18)18 April 1882
Nijmegen, Netherlands
Died8 February 1945(1945-02-08) (aged 62)
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Nazi Germany
Alma materUniversiteit van Amsterdam
Known forDenjoy–Wolff theorem, boundary version of the Schwarz lemma
SpouseBetsy Gersons (Tilburg 12 June 1889 – Bergen-Belsen 9 March 1945)
ChildrenLouis (died 11 May 1940 in Amsterdam), Ernst (Groningen 9 October 1919 – Bergen-Belsen 3 March 1945)
Scientific career
Thesis Dynamen, beschouwd als duale vectoren  (1908)
Doctoral advisorDiederik Johannes Korteweg

Julius Wolff (18 April 1882 – 8 February 1945)[1] was a Dutch-Jewish mathematician, known for the Denjoy–Wolff theorem and for his boundary version of the Schwarz lemma.[3][4][5] With his family he was arrested in Utrecht by the Nazi occupation forces of the Netherlands on 8 March 1943 and transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 13 September 1944, where he died of epidemic typhus on 8 February 1945, shortly before the camp was liberated.[5][6]

Wolff studied mathematics and physics at the University of Amsterdam, where he earned his doctorate in 1908 under Korteweg with thesis Dynamen, beschouwd als duale vectoren.[7] From 1907 to 1917 he taught at secondary and grammar schools in Meppel, Middelburg, and Amsterdam. In 1917 Wolff was appointed Professor of differential calculus, theory of functions and higher algebra at the University of Groningen and in 1922 at the University of Utrecht. He was also a statistical advisor for the life insurance company (or co-operative distributive society) "Eigen Hulp," (a predecessor of AEGON) with offices at The Hague.[8]

  1. ^ Joods Monument - Julius Wolff
  2. ^ a b quoted from Gerard Alberts, Amsterdam, blog post of Feb. 3, 2003 at mathforum.org
  3. ^ J. A. Barrau (1947). "In Memoriam Prof. Dr. J. Wolff". Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde. 2 (22): 113–114. with portrait[2]
  4. ^ J. G. van der Corput (1948). "Wiskunde". In Karel Frederik Proost and Jan Romein (ed.). Geestelijk Nederland 1920-1940 (PDF). Vol. II. Amsterdam: Kosmos. pp. 255—291 (263—299 in the pdf file). This article has a separate one-page-section on the importance of J. Wolff (p.279-280 in the pdf file), and a portrait (p.275).[2]
  5. ^ a b "(J.A. van Maanen:) Julius Wolff (1882-1945) (Biography in Dutch)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database -- Registry of Names of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Prisoners".
  7. ^ Julius Wolff at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  8. ^ Joods Monument - Julius Wolff and his family