Colloquium Series Seminar

Emmy Noether is famous as the "mother of modern algebra," but her influence extended far beyond algebra alone. This talk, based on my recent book with the title above, will focus on Noether's broader influence as an international figure in the 1920s. Beyond her immediate circle of students, Noether's courses drew talented mathematicians from all over the world. Four of the most important were B.L. van der Waerden, Pavel Alexandrov, Helmut Hasse, and Olga Taussky. Noether's classic papers on ideal theory inspired van der Waerden to recast his research in algebraic geometry. Her lectures on group theory motivated Alexandrov to develop links between point set topology and combinatorial methods. Noether's vision for a new approach to algebraic number theory gave Hasse the impetus to pursue a line of research that led to the Brauer-Hasse-Noether Theorem, whereas her abstract style clashed with Taussky's approach to classical class field theory during a difficult time when both were trying to find their footing in a foreign country. Hermann Weyl, her colleague before both fled to the United States in 1933, fully recognized that Noether's dynamic school was the very heart and soul of the famous Gottingen community.

Two recent books on Emmy Noether
-Emmy Noether - Mathematician Extraordinaire
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030638092
-Proving It Her Way: Emmy Noether, a Life in Mathematics
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030628109


Zoom Link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/95670736807

Passcode: 909629 Speaker(s): David Rowe (Mainz University)