Heinrich Friedrich Karl Ludwig Burkhardt was a German mathematician.
Education
He famously was one of the examiners of Albert Einstein"s Doctor of Philosophy thesis. Starting from 1879 he studied under Karl Weierstrass, Alexander von Brill, and Hermann Amandus Schwarz in Munich (at university and technical university), Berlin and Göttingen.
Career
Of Einstein"s thesis he stated: "The mode of treatment demonstrates fundamental mastery of the relevant mathematical methods" and "What I checked, I found to be correct without exception."
Burkhardt was born in Schweinfurt. In 1887 he was an assistant at Göttingen and obtained his habilitation there in 1889. Later he was a professor in Zürich (1897–1908) and Munich (since October 1908).
He worked on the theory of the elliptical functions, series expansions, group theory, the Burkhardt quartic, and history of mathematics.
He died in Neuwittelsbach/München, of a disease of the stomach, diagnosed about Easter 1914.
Membership
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.