HERGLOTZ

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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2.2.1881 Wallern/CR - 22.3.1953 Göttingen/D

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Gustav Herglotz made studies at Vienna and Munich Universities in mathematics and astronomy. After having submitted a PhD thesis he became a Lecturer at Göttingen University in 1904. Four years later he was appointed in Vienna professor of mathematics and in 1909 in Leipzig, from where he returned to Göttingen University in 1925. As the successor of the mathematician Runge Herglotz was particularly interested in analytical mechanics. He retired in 1947. Herglotz was elected to the Saxony Academy in 1914, and to the Göttingen Society of Sciences in 1925. He was a Corresponding Member of the Bavarian Academy from 1942.

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Herglotz initiated with his dissertation a number of other works in electronics, the theory of relativity and in hydrodynamics. He was considered a great master of classical and modern mathematics both from its conceptual forms as also in technical applications. It is reported that he presented all his lectures free from any notes and a female student described him as: "Herglotz had something from the atmosphere and the elegance of the 19th century, and he was clothed indeed as Goethe might have been. And he had really glowing eyes. He was like someone amusing himself perfectly … His lectures were of perfect beauty." Herglotz is also known for a paper written with Hahn and Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916). Its origin was turbulence as introduced by Joseph Boussinesq (1842-1929), and the Germans wondered why Boussinesq's approach had not received more echo. They thus proposed an inductive rather than a deductive approach. Using Boussinesq's eddy viscosity coefficient, the colleagues determined the prominent features of turbulent flow and compared the results with those of laminar flow. It should be noted that this paper was published in 1904, when Ludwig Prandtl introduced the boundary layer theory with its far-reaching consequences.

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_{Hahn, H., Herglotz, H., Schwarzschild, K. (1904). Über das Strömen des Wassers in Röhren und Kanälen. Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik 51: 411-426.}

_{Magnus, K. (1994). Forscher an Prandtls Weg. GAMM-Mitteilungen 17(1): 59-73. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1925). Herglotz, Gustav. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch}

_{5: 524; 6: 1088; 7a: 450. Verlag Chemie: Leipzig, Berlin, with bibliography.}

_{Tietze, H. (1953). Gustav Herglotz. Jahrbuch Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften: 188-}

_{194. P}

_{Wiemers, G., Fischer, E. (1996). Herglotz, Gustav. Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften Die Mitglieder von 1846 bis 1996: 69. Akademie Verlag: Leipzig. P}