Carl Størmer | |
---|---|
Born |
Fredrik Carl Mulertz Størmer 3 September 1874 Skien |
Died | 13 August 1957 Oslo |
(aged 82)
Nationality | Norwegian |
Alma mater | University of Oslo |
Known for |
number theory aurorae |
Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society |
Scientific career | |
Fields | mathematics |
Fredrik Carl Mülertz Størmer (3 September 1874 – 13 August 1957) was a Norwegian mathematician and physicist, known both for his work in number theory and for studying the movement of charged particles in the magnetosphere and the formation of aurorae.
Størmer was born on 3 September 1874 in Skien, the only child of a pharmacist Georg Ludvig Størmer (1842–1930) and Elisabeth Amalie Johanne Henriette Mülertz (1844–1916). His uncle was the entrepreneur and inventor Henrik Christian Fredrik Størmer.
He studied mathematics at the Royal Frederick University (now: University of Oslo) from 1892 to 1897, earning the rank of candidatus realium in 1898. He then studied with Picard, Poincaré, Painlevé, Jordan, Darboux, and Goursat at the Sorbonne in Paris from 1898 to 1900. He returned to Kristiania in 1900 as a research fellow in mathematics, visited the University of Göttingen in 1902, and returned to Kristiania in 1903, where he was appointed as a professor of mathematics, a position he held for 43 years. After he received a permanent position in Kristiania, Størmer published his subsequent writings under a shortened version of his name, Carl Størmer. In 1918, he was elected as the first president of the newly formed Norwegian Mathematical Society. He participated regularly in Scandinavian mathematical congresses, and was president of the 1936 International Congress of Mathematicians in Oslo (from 1924 the new name of Kristiania). Størmer was also affiliated with the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo, which was founded in 1934. He died on 13 August 1957, at Blindern.