Oscar Zariski - forgot about his own wedding
I am always excited when I stumble upon a biography of a mathematician I wasn’t previously aware of. It’s strange (or perhaps not, given we’re talking about mathematics) how many brilliant minds in the field lack the biographical treatment they deserve. Consider just a few luminaries from the first half of the 20th century: André Weil (opens new window) , Hermann Weyl (opens new window) , Carl Ludwig Siegel (opens new window) , Emil Artin (opens new window) , Edmund Landau (opens new window) , Helmut Hasse (opens new window) .
For physicists, it’s a bit different. I think they are much better covered. The reason might be that their work is more directly connected to everyday life. Just think of nuclear energy or the theory of relativity, which is crucial for GPS (opens new window) to work properly.
So, recently I came across the biography of Oscar Zariski (opens new window) . Zariski (1899-1986) was one of the founders of modern algebraic geometry.
