Walther von Dyck

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Walther Franz Anton von Dyck (6 December 1856 – 5 November 1934), born Dyck (Template:IPA<ref>Pronunciation according to information from the Board of Management of the Technical University of Munich.</ref>) and later ennobled, was a German mathematician. He is credited with being the first to define a mathematical group, in the modern sense in Template:Harv. He laid the foundations of combinatorial group theory,<ref name="stillwell374">Template:Citation</ref> being the first to systematically study a group by generators and relations.

Biography

Von Dyck was a student of Felix Klein<ref name="stillwell374"/> and served as chairman of the commission publishing Klein's encyclopedia. Von Dyck was also the editor of Kepler's works. He promoted technological education as rector of the Technische Hochschule of Munich.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1908 at Rome.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Von Dyck is the son of the Bavarian painter Hermann Dyck.

The Dyck language in formal language theory is named after him,<ref name="Udacity">Template:Cite web</ref> as are Dyck's theorem and Dyck's surface in the theory of surfaces, together with the von Dyck groups, the Dyck tessellations, Dyck paths, and the Dyck graph.

Ulf Hashagen: Walther von Dyck (1856–1934). Mathematik, Technik und Wissenschaftsorganisation an der TH München, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, Template:ISBN