Background
Carl Geiser was born on February 26, 1843, in Langenthal, Bern, Switzerland. He was the son of Friedrich Geiser, a butcher, and Elisabeth Geiser-Begert.
Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Geiser studied for four semesters from 1859 to 1861 at the Zürich Polytechnikum.
Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Geiser went to Berlin for four semesters from 1861 to 1863 to study under Karl Weierstrass and Leopold Kronecker.
Hochschulstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Geiser pursued graduate studies at the University of Bern with doctorate in 1866.
educator mathematician scientist
Carl Geiser was born on February 26, 1843, in Langenthal, Bern, Switzerland. He was the son of Friedrich Geiser, a butcher, and Elisabeth Geiser-Begert.
Geiser studied for four semesters from 1859 to 1861 at the Zürich Polytechnikum (now Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) and then went to Berlin for four semesters from 1861 to 1863 to study under Karl Weierstrass and Leopold Kronecker. He pursued graduate studies at the University of Bern with doctorate in 1866.
Geiser returned to Switzerland as a Privatdozent at Zürich Polytechnikum (later renamed the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in 1863. From 1869 to 1873 he was a professor extraordinarius, and from 1873 to 1913 a professor ordinarius for higher mathematics and synthetic geometry. From 1881 to 1887 and from 1891 to 1895 Geiser was the director of the Zürich Polytechnikum.
Geiser made an outstanding contribution to the development of the Swiss system of higher education. Acquainted with many persons in the fields of politics and economics as well as with important mathematicians in the neighboring countries, and a close adviser of the chairman of school supervisors, Geiser worked effectively within the professoriate to attract first-rate teachers. There devolved upon him, above all, the instruction of candidates for the teaching of algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and invariant theory.
Geiser’s scientific works are concerned especially with algebraic geometry. He explained the relation of the twenty-eight double tangents of the plane quadric to the twenty-seven straight lines of the cubic surface. An involution that he discovered bears his name. Minimal surfaces also engaged his attention: he investigated the intersection of an algebraic minimal surface with an infinite plane and determined all the algebraic minimal surfaces. In addition, Geiser edited Jakob Steiner’s unpublished lectures and treatises. He was organizer and president of the first International Congress of Mathematicians, held at Zurich in 1897.