Bernhard Riemann
Calculus takers (in particular fans of integrals) will remember that pesky little total of imagined rectangles, the Riemann Sum. Riemann was also integral to the development of the much-loved (but seldom admired) Zeta Function, which has fascinating implications for the field of Number Theory, which is apparently extremely interesting to some of the people on this website.
Riemann, like so many other heroes, died in transit to Italy of tuberculosis. He, unlike Shelley, is not burried next to John Keats, however, leading to much speculation that the actual cause of his death may have been an early case of SARS.
All speculation aside, Riemann was the Real Man in this prognosticators eyes, and therefore, I repeat with verve, "We who will someday die, salute you, Bernhard Riemann!"
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1 comment:
Posting as Bernhard himself, your choice of "person of the week" truly makes me proud. Riemann was an amazing mathematician; his work, like all great men (but especially great mathematicians), furthered not just one discipline, but mathematics itself. He worked under Gauss, another German legend. More can be learned about him here. Like yourself, Bernhard was ahead of his time and prefigured Einstein's work in math, as well as really all mathematicians today.
Though I'm sure, you, Nostradamus, already knew that.
Best,
BR
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