| Moritz Werner Fenchel | |
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Werner Fenchel, 1972
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| Born | 3 May 1905 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 24 January 1988 (aged 82) Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Residence | Germany, Denmark, USA |
| Citizenship | German |
| Fields | Mathematics: Geometry Optimization |
| Institutions | University of Copenhagen University of Göttingen |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Doctoral advisor | Ludwig Bieberbach |
| Doctoral students | Birgit Grodal |
| Known for | Convex analysis Legendre–Fenchel transformation Fenchel's duality theorem |
| Influenced | Victor Klee R. Tyrrell Rockafellar |
Moritz Werner Fenchel (3 May 1905 – 24 January 1988) was a mathematician known for his contributions to geometry and to optimization theory. Fenchel established the basic results of convex analysis and nonlinear optimization theory. Fenchel's monographs and lecture-notes were very influential also. Fenchel lived most of his life in Denmark.
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Fenchel lectured on "Convex Sets, Cones, and Functions" at Princeton University in the early 1950s. His lecture notes shaped the field of convex analysis, according to the monograph Convex Analysis of R. T. Rockafellar.
Fenchel was born in Germany and wrote his doctorate thesis in geometry (Über Krümmung und Windung geschlossener Raumkurven) under Ludwig Bieberbach at the University of Berlin. He then taught at the University of Göttingen, until 1933 when the Nazi discrimination laws led to mass-firings of Jews.
Fenchel fled to Denmark in 1933, and then obtained a position at the University of Copenhagen. When Germany occupied Denmark, Fenchel and roughly eight-thousand other Danish Jews received refuge in Sweden. After the liberation of Denmark, Fenchel returned to Copenhagen.