Ernst Witt (1911 - 1991)

Born 26 Jun 1911 in Sønderborg, Sønderjylland, Denmark

Husband of Erna Bannow — married 1940 in Hamburg, Germany

Died 3 Jul 1991 at age 80 in Hamburg, Germany

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Biography

Ernst Witt is Notable.

Ernst was born in 1911. He passed away in 1991. He was a German mathematician and a leading algebraist. He proved important results on Lie algebras.

Heinrich Witt was Ernst's father. He was appointed as a missionary in China in 1900. The family returned in 1911 just before Ernst's birth. When Ernst was two, the family went back to China. He then spent the next seven years in China. Then in the spring of 1920 Ernst and his younger brother Otto were also sent to live with their uncle in Müllheim.

Ernst started university at Freiburg, but transferred to Göttingen after two years in 1930. He attended lectures by Gustav Herglotz, Hermann Weyl and Emmy Noether among others. In 1932 he attended lectures by Emil Artin and was greatly influenced by them. He later filled the post that Artin held.

Witt married Erna Barrow in 1940 and they had two daughters.

His invention of the Witt vectors clarifies and generalizes the structure of the p-adic numbers. It has become fundamental to p-adic Hodge theory.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Ernst Witt
• Wikidata: Item Q68559, en:Wikipedia
• https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Witt/
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/240741311/ernst-witt