Max August Zorn
| Max August Zorn | |
|---|---|
Max August Zorn, Jena, 1930
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| Born |
June 6, 1906 Krefeld, Rhenish Prussia, Germany |
| Died | March 9, 1993 (aged 86) Bloomington, Indiana, United States |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions |
Indiana University University of California, Los Angeles |
| Alma mater | University of Hamburg |
| Doctoral advisor | Emil Artin |
| Doctoral students | Israel Nathan Herstein |
| Known for |
Zorn's lemma Split-octonions |
Max August Zorn (German: [tsɔʁn]; June 6, 1906 – March 9, 1993) was a German mathematician. He was an algebraist, group theorist, and numerical analyst. He is best known for Zorn's lemma, a method used in set theory that is applicable to a wide range of mathematical constructs such as vector spaces, ordered sets and the like. Zorn's lemma was first postulated by Kazimierz Kuratowski in 1922, and then independently by Zorn in 1935.
Zorn was born in Krefeld, Germany. He attended the University of Hamburg. He received his Ph.D. in April 1930 for a thesis on alternative algebras. He published his findings in Abhandlungen aus dem Mathematischen Seminar der Universität Hamburg. Zorn showed that split-octonions could be represented by a mixed-style of matrices called Zorn's vector-matrix algebra.
Max Zorn was appointed as an assistant at the University of Halle. However, he did not have the opportunity to work there for long since he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 because of the Nazi policies. According to grandson Eric, "[Max] spoke with a raspy, airy voice most of his life. Few people knew why, because he only told the story after significant prodding, but he talked that way because pro-Hitler thugs who objected to his politics, had battered his throat in a 1933 street fight."
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