Background
Richard Courant was born on January 8, 1888 in Lublinitz, Poland. He was the son of Siegmund and Martha (Freund) Courant.
educator mathematician scientist
Richard Courant was born on January 8, 1888 in Lublinitz, Poland. He was the son of Siegmund and Martha (Freund) Courant.
Courant entered the University of Breslau for 2 years from 1905, then continued his studies at the University of Göttingen, graduating from it in 1910 with Doctor of Science degree.
Courant served in German Army in 1910 and became a non-commission officer. He was obliged to serve in World War I, but was wounded shortly after enlisting and therefore dismissed from the military.
Richard continued his research in Göttingen, which he had started when he was a student there. Then he engaged a two-year period at the University of Münster as professor of mathematics, worked there during 1919-1920. There he founded the Mathematical Institute, which he headed as director from 1928 until 1933.
Courant left Germany in 1933, earlier than many Jewish escapees did.
Richard was a visiting lecturer at Cambridge University during 1933-1934 and held the same position at New York University from 1934 to 1936. In 1936, after one year at Cambridge, Courant accepted a professorship at New York University in New York City.
That same year he became a professor and head of mathematics department. He served there for two decades.
Most of Courant’s work was in variational calculus and its applications to physics, computer science, and other fields.
Richard Courant received worldwide recognition as one of the foremost organizers of mathematical research and teaching in the twentieth century.
He contributed significantly to the resurgence of applied mathematics in the twentieth century.
The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (as it was renamed in 1964) is now one of the most respected research centers in applied mathematics.
His name is also associated with the finite element method, with his numerical treatment of the plain torsion problem for multiply-connected domains, published in 1943.
For his great contribution to the mathematical development of scientific process he was awarded with several rewards.
(For more than two thousand years a familiarity with mathe...)
Quotations: "Empirical evidence can never establish mathematical existence--nor can the mathematician's demand for existence be dismissed by the physicist as useless rigor. Only a mathematical existence proof can ensure that the mathematical description of a physical phenomenon is meaningful."
Courant was a member of American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Physical Society, National Academy Sciences, New York Academy Sciences, Mathematics Association American, American Philosophical Society, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Academy Sciences Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, Royal Netherlands, Academy Sciences and Letters, Akademie der Wissenschaften (Goettingen), Royal Danish Academy Science and Letters and Sigma Xi. Club: Cosmos.
Quotes from others about the person
“Every physicist is in Dr. Courant’s debt for the vast insight he has given us into mathematical methods for comprehending nature and the physical world.” - Harry Schwartz, a Nobel laureate, A'etv York Times obituary
In 1912 Courant married to a woman he had tutored as an adolescent, Courant was divorced in 1916. In 1919 he married Nerina (Nina) Runge, and they had two sons and two daughters: Ernest David, Gertrude A. Elizabeth, Hans Wolfgang Julius and Marianne Leonore.
