Ferdinand Eisenstein
| Gotthold Eisenstein | |
|---|---|
Gotthold Eisenstein
|
|
| Born |
16 April 1823 Berlin, Prussia |
| Died | 11 October 1852 (aged 29) Berlin, Prussia |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Doctoral advisor |
Ernst Eduard Kummer Nicolaus Wolfgang Fischer |
Ferdinand Gotthold Max Eisenstein (16 April 1823 – 11 October 1852) was a German mathematician. He specialized in number theory and analysis, and proved several results that eluded even Gauss. Like Galois and Abel before him, Eisenstein died before the age of 30. He was born and died in Berlin, Prussia.
His parents, Johan Konstantin Eisenstein and Helene Pollack, were of Jewish descent and converted to Protestantism prior to his birth. From an early age, he demonstrated talent in mathematics and music. As a young child he learned to play piano, and he continued to play and compose for piano throughout his life.
He suffered various health problems throughout his life, including meningitis as an infant, a disease that took the lives of all five of his brothers and sisters. In 1837, at the age of 14, he enrolled at Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium, and soon thereafter at Friedrich Werder Gymnasium in Berlin. His teachers recognized his talents in mathematics, but by 15 years of age he had already learned all the material taught at the school. He then began to study differential calculus from the works of Leonhard Euler and Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
At 17, still a student, Eisenstein began to attend classes given by Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet and others at the University of Berlin. In 1842, before taking his final exams, he traveled with his mother to England, to search for his father. In 1843 he met William Rowan Hamilton in Dublin, who gave him a copy of his book on Niels Henrik Abel's proof of the impossibility of solving fifth degree polynomials, a work that would stimulate Eisenstein's interest in mathematical research.
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