Timeline for Pseudonyms of famous mathematicians
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 7, 2014 at 7:34 | comment | added | Włodzimierz Holsztyński | An anecdote (I hope that it's true :-) *** After WWII, during his lecture in Wrocław (Poland), Marczewski mentioned one of his old results. A Rusian visitor in the audience had objected: this is a Szpilrajn's theorem. The other older Polish mathematicians tried to explain that Szpilrajn and Marczewski is one and the same person. The visitor still disagreed: No way! Szpilrajn was murdered by Germans during WWII. Szpilrajn was a STRONG mathematician. | |
| Mar 31, 2011 at 10:08 | comment | added | Michael Renardy | Along the lines of altered names: D'Alembert was abandoned and adopted when he was an infant. But neither his birth parents nor his adoptive parents were named D'Alembert. He made up the name when he was a college student. | |
| Dec 31, 2010 at 10:56 | comment | added | Patrick I-Z | Imre Lakatos, who wasn't strictly speaking a mathematician, but not very far, was born Avrum Lipsitz. He changed definitely his name for a clear reason. I count him as a mathematician since his thesis "Proofs and Refutations" had a big influence on me, to help me understand the process of doing mathematics. | |
| Nov 8, 2010 at 10:57 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | Denis explicitly asked us not to count people who changed their name(s) because of persecution. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it is to make a distinction between a permanent, official change of name and a temporary use of a pseudonym while keeping (or intending to return to) one's original name. If those are the rules, maybe Feldbau would count (see Chandan's answer), but not Tarski. Or maybe Denis would like to clarify. | |
| Nov 7, 2010 at 21:25 | history | answered | Andreas Blass | CC BY-SA 2.5 |