Lars Ahlfors

Infobox Scientist
name = Lars Ahlfors


image_width =
caption = Lars Ahlfors
birth_date = birth date|1907|04|18
birth_place = Helsinki, Finland
death_date = death date and age|1996|10|11|1907|04|18
death_place =
nationality = Finland
field = Mathematics
work_institutions = University of Helsinki
ETH Zurich
Harvard University
alma_mater = University of Helsinki
doctoral_advisor = Ernst Lindelöf
Rolf Nevanlinna
doctoral_students =
known_for = Riemann surfaces
influences =
influenced =
prizes = Fields Medal (1936)
Wihuri Prize (1968)
Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1981) Lars Valerian Ahlfors (April 18, 1907 – October 11, 1996) was a Finnish mathematician, remembered for his work in the field of Riemann surfaces and his text on complex analysis.

He was born in Helsinki, the son of a Professor of Engineering. He studied at University of Helsinki from 1924, graduating in 1928 having studied under Ernst Lindelöf and Rolf Nevanlinna.

He assisted Nevanlinna in 1929 with his work on Denjoy's conjecture on the number of asymptotic values of an entire function. He completed his doctorate in 1930. Ahlfors worked as an associate professor at the University of Helsinki from 1933 to 1936.

In 1936 he was one of the first two people to be awarded the Fields Medal. In 1935 Alfors visited Harvard University. He returned to Finland in 1938 to take up a professorship at the University of Helsinki. The outbreak of war led to problems although Ahlfors was unfit for military service. He was offered a post at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich in 1944 and finally managed to travel there in March 1945. He did not enjoy his time in Switzerland and jumped at a chance to leave, returning to work at Harvard where he remained until he retired in 1977; he was William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics from 1964. He was awarded the Wihuri Prize in 1968 and the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 1981.

His book "Complex Analysis" (1953) is "the" classic text on the subject and is almost certainly referenced in any more recent text which makes heavy use of complex analysis. Ahlfors wrote several other significant books, including "Riemann surfaces" (1960) and "Conformal invariants" (1973).He made decisive contributions to meromorphic curves, value distribution theory, Riemann surfaces, conformal geometry, quasiconformal mappings and other areas during his career.

He married Erna Lehnert and had three daughters.

Bibliography

* "Complex Analysis" (1979) (ISBN 0-07-000657-1)
* "Contributions to the Theory of Riemann Surfaces: Annals of Mathematics Studies" (1953) (ISBN 0-691-07939-0)
*cite journal | last=Ahlfors | first=Lars | title=Fundamental Polyhedrons and Limit Point Sets of Kleinian Groups | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=55 | issue=2 | pages=251–254 | month=Feb | year=1966 | url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16591331 | id=PMID:16591331 | accessdate=2008-04-06 | doi=10.1073/pnas.55.2.251

External links

* [http://www.math.harvard.edu/history/ahlfors/ Ahlfors] entry on Harvard University Mathematics department web site.
* [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua16002 Papers of Lars Valerian Ahlfors : an inventory] (Harvard University Archives)
* [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Ahlfors.html Lars Valerian Ahlfors] The MacTutor History of Mathematics page about Ahlfors
* [http://www.ams.org/notices/199802/ahlfors.pdf The Mathematics of Lars Valerian Ahlfors] , "Notices of the American Mathematical Society"; vol. 45, no. 2 (February 1998).
* [http://www.ams.org/notices/199802/comm-krantz.pdf Lars Valerian Ahlfors (1907–1996)] , "Notices of the American Mathematical Society"; vol. 45, no. 2 (February 1998).