Edmund Landau

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Edmund Landau, 1877-1938

Edmund Georg Hermann (Yehezkel) Landau (February 14, 1877 – February 19, 1938) was a German Jewish mathematician and author of over 250 papers on number theory.

Edmund Landau was born in Berlin to a wealthy Jewish family. His father was Leopold Landau, a gynecologist. His mother was Johanna Jacoby from a well known German banking family. Landau studied mathematics at the University of Berlin and received his doctorate in 1899 and his habilitation (the post-doctoral qualification required in German universities) in 1901.

Landau taught at the University of Berlin from 1899 until 1909 and held a chair at the University of Göttingen from 1909 until he was forced out by the Nazi regime in 1933. Thereafter he lectured only outside of Germany.

In 1903 Landau gave a much simpler proof than was then known of the prime number theorem and later presented the first systematic treatment of analytic number theory in the Handbuch der Lehre von der Verteilung des Primzahlen, or simply the Handbuch. He also made important contributions to complex analysis.

Hardy wrote that no one was ever more passionately devoted to mathematics than Landau. This is amply evidenced by his small book on the axiomatic foundations of analysis and two very important books on number theory.

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[edit] Translated Works

Foundations of Analysis, Chelsea Pub Co. ISBN 0-8218-2693-X.
Differential and Integral Calculus, American Mathematical Society. ISBN 0-8218-2830-4.
Elementary Number Theory, American Mathematical Society. ISBN 0-8218-2004-4.