But there is a deeper reason for researching the lives of others who have gone before. It is a kind of defiance reflected by Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem printed on this page. These words were spoken by a leading twentieth-century mathematician, Hermann Weyl, in his memorial address soon after the death of the mathematician Emmy Noether. The poem speaks for many biographical researchers and writers.
Each biographical study here consists of a brief summary of the person's life and work, including, as may be appropriate and available, a photographic or other image, list of publications, and links. In the case of the New Harmony naturalists, there are quite a number of onsite links to species named by them or named in their honor. Many professional photographers have kindly given permission for the use of their work in these links.
For subjects about whom a book-length biography exists you'll find here only brief summaries with references to the literature. For lesser-known individuals, you'll find more extensive accounts.
The biographical sketches are grouped as follows:
New Harmony Scientists, Educators, Writers & Artists (New Harmony is a historic town in Indiana);
Emmy Noether, Mentors and Colleagues;
Fibonacci Number-Theorists.
Triangle Geometers;
All the names in all the groups are listed here:
Samuel Beatty (1881-1970) as in Beatty sequences
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) as in Napoleon theorem
Brother Alfred Brousseau, F. S. C. (1907-1988) co-founder of the Fibonacci Association
John Chappellsmith (1806-1895) artist and writer
Margaret Chappellsmith (1806-1883) lecturer and writer
John Wentworth Clawson (1881-1964) as in Clawson point
Edward Travers Cox (1821-1907) geologist
George Davidson (1825-1911) west coast scientist
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) mathematician
Jane Dale Owen Fauntleroy (1806-1861) educator
Robert Henry Fauntleroy (1806-1849) civil engineer
Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach (1800-1834) as in Feuerbach theorem
Fibonacci (c.1175-c.1240) as in Fibonacci numbers
Ernst Fischer (1875-1954) mathematician
Marie Duclos Fretageot (1783-1833) educator, manager
Paul Gordan (1837-1912) Emmy Noether's dissertation advisor, "king of invariants"
Harry Clinton Gossard (1884-1954) educator, geometer
Helmut Hasse (1898-1979) algebraist, number-theorist
Jacques Herbrand (1908-1931) logician
David Hilbert (1862-1943) mathematician
Verner Emil Hoggatt, Jr. (1921-1981) co-founder of the Fibonacci Association
David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) icthyologist, educator
Ludwig Kiepert (1846-1934) as in Kiepert hyperbola
Leo Lesquereux (1806-1889) paleobotanist
Charles-Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846) naturalist, artist
Ross Franklin Lockridge, Sr. (1877-1952); Jr. (1914-1948) authors
Édouard Lucas (1842-1891) number-theorist
William Maclure (1763-1840), father of American geology
Gian Francesco Malfatti (1731-1807) as in Malfatti problem
Frank Morley (1860-1937) as in Morley triangle, Morley points
Christian Heinrich von Nagel (1803-1882) as in Nagel point
Francis Joseph Nicholas Neef (1770-1854) educator
Emmy Noether (1882-1935) mathematician
Max Noether (1844-1921) algebraic geometer, father of Emmy Noether
Charles Joseph Norwood (1853-1927) geologist
Joseph Granville Norwood (1807-1895) geologist
David Dale Owen (1807-1860) geologist
Richard Owen (1810-1890), geologist, first president of Purdue University
Robert Dale Owen (1801-1877), social reformer
Robert Owen (1771-1858), social reformer
William Owen (1802-1842), citizen of New Harmony
Henry Pratten ( ? - 1857) paleontologist, naturalist
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) educator
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783-1840) naturalist
Thomas Say (1787-1834) naturalist, father of American entomology
Jacob Schneck (1843-1906) botanist
Kurt Schiffler (1896-1986) as in Schiffler point
Cornelius Tiebout (173?-1832) copperplate engraver
Paul Johannas Tillich (1886-1965) theologian
Gerard Troost (1776-1850) geologist
B. L. van der Waerden (1903-1996) algebraist, combinatorialist, historian
Josiah Warren (1798-1874) social reformer, inventor
Prinz Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867) naturalist, ethnologist
Frances Wright (1795-1852) social reformer
Willem Abraham Wythoff (1865-1939) as in Wythoff game
Eduardo Zeckendorf (1901-1983) as in Zeckendorf sums
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