Lothar Collatz | |
|---|---|
 Lothar Collatz (Photo courtesy MFO) | |
| Born | July 6, 1910 |
| Died | September 26, 1990 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | German |
| Education | University of Greifswald University of Berlin |
| Known for | Collatz conjecture Collatz–Wielandt formula Spectral graph theory |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Berlin Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe Technische Universität Darmstadt Technische Hochschule Hannover University of Hamburg |
| Doctoral advisor | Alfred Klose Erhard Schmidt |
| Doctoral students | Frank Natterer Heinz Unger |
Lothar Collatz (German: [ˈkɔlaʦ]; July 6, 1910 – September 26, 1990) was a German mathematician, born in Arnsberg, Westphalia.
The "3x + 1" problem is also known as the Collatz conjecture, named after him and still unsolved. The Collatz–Wielandt formula for the Perron–Frobenius eigenvalue of a positive square matrix was also named after him.
Collatz's 1957 paper with Ulrich Sinogowitz,[1] who had been killed in the bombing of Darmstadt in World War II,[2] founded the field of spectral graph theory.
- ^ Von Collatz, L. and Sinogowitz, U., 1957, December. Spektren endlicher Grafen. In Abhandlungen aus dem Mathematischen Seminar der Universität Hamburg (vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 63–77). Springer-Verlag.
- ^ Mallion, R.B., 2005. An autobiographical account of chemical graph theory in the years surrounding the launch of MATCH: An Oxford participant's highly personal and parochial reminiscence about the period 1969–1976. Match-Communications In Mathematical And In Computer Chemistry, 53(1), pp. 15–52.