Cahit Arf

Cahit Arf
Born	(1910-10-11)October 11, 1910 Selanik (Thessaloniki), Ottoman Empire
Died	December 26, 1997(1997-12-26) (aged 87) Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Middle East Technical University UC Berkeley Institute for Advanced Study Istanbul University
Alma mater	École Normale Supérieure University of Göttingen
Doctoral advisor	Helmut Hasse
Known for	Arf invariant

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Cahit Arf (Turkish: [d͡ʒɑhit aɾf]; 11 October 1910 – 26 December 1997) was a Turkish mathematician. He is known for the Arf invariant of a quadratic form in characteristic 2 (applied in knot theory and surgery theory) in topology, the Hasse–Arf theorem in ramification theory, Arf semigroups, and Arf rings.

Cahit Arf was born on 11 October 1910 in Selanik (Thessaloniki), which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire. His family migrated to Istanbul with the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1912. The family finally settled in İzmir where Cahit Arf received his primary education. Upon receiving a scholarship from the Turkish Ministry of Education he continued his education in Paris and graduated from École Normale Supérieure.

Returning to Turkey, he taught mathematics at Galatasaray High School. In 1933 he joined the Mathematics Department of Istanbul University. In 1937 he went to Göttingen, where he received his PhD from the University of Göttingen and he worked with Helmut Hasse and Josue Cruz de Munoz. He returned to Istanbul University and worked there until his involvement with the foundation work of Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK) upon President Cemal Gursel's appointment in 1962. After serving as the founding director of the council in 1963, he joined the Mathematics Department of Robert College in Istanbul. Arf spent the period of 1964–1966 working at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He later visited University of California, Berkeley for one year.

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