Leopold Kronecker (b. 7 December 1823 in Legnica, died 29 December 1891 in Berlin) – German-Jewish mathematician and logician.
He was born in Legnica into a wealthy Jewish merchant family. His scientific abilities were discovered by his high school teacher, Ernst E. Kummer, who later became professor at the Wrocław University. In the years 1841–1845, Kronecker studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at the universities in Berlin, Bonn, and Wrocław. In 1845, he received his PhD at the University of Berlin.
At his father's request, he also studied agricultural science and, for a time, ran the family business. Due to his skilful management of the family estate, he was able to return to Berlin in 1855 and pursue a career in science. He gave lectures at the Humboldt University. In 1861, he was accepted into the Prussian Academy of Sciences, where he carried out research in algebra, numeric theory and the theory of functions.
Bibliography
- Rohrbach H., Kronecker Leopold, [in] Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 13, Berlin 1982, pp. 82–83.