Max August Zorn
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Max August Zorn (June 6, 1906 in Krefeld, Germany – March 9, 1993 in Bloomington, Indiana, USA) was a German-born American mathematician.
He was an algebraist, group theorist, and numerical analyst.
He is famous for Zorn's lemma, a powerful tool in set theory that is applicable to a wide range of mathematical constructs such as vector spaces, ordered sets, etc. Zorn's lemma was first discovered by K. Kuratowski in 1922, and then independently by Zorn in 1935.
He was a professor at Indiana University from 1946 until his death.
According to Indiana University math professor Kent Orr, a traffic light was installed near the math building on account of Zorn nearly being killed by a car as an elderly professor emeritus.
Zorn was also an avid guitar player; there is a picture of him playing guitar hanging in Rawles Hall, where Bloomington's math faculty resides.
Max Zorn married Alice Schlottau and they had one son, Jens, and one daughter, Liz. Zorn's grandson Eric Zorn is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
[edit] External links
- O'Connor, John J., and Edmund F. Robertson. "Max August Zorn". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
- Max August Zorn at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
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