Karl Sigmund | |
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| Born | July 26, 1945 |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Vienna |
| Thesis | Über Verteilungsmaße von Maßfolgen auf lokalkompakten Gruppen (1968) |
| Doctoral advisor | Leopold Schmetterer |
Karl Sigmund (born July 26, 1945) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Vienna and one of the pioneers of evolutionary game theory.
Sigmund was schooled in the Lycée Francais de Vienne. From 1963 to 1968 he studied at the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Vienna, and obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Leopold Schmetterer. He spent his postdoctorate years (1968 to 1973) at Manchester ('68-'69), the Institut des hautes études scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette near Paris ('69-'70), the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1970-'71), the University of Vienna (1971-'72) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1972-'73). In 1972 he received habilitation.
In 1973, Sigmund was appointed C3-professor at the University of Göttingen, and in 1974 became a full professor at the Institute of Mathematics in Vienna. His main scientific interest during these years was in ergodic theory and dynamical systems. From 1977 on, Sigmund became increasingly interested in different fields of biomathematics, and collaborated with Peter Schuster and Josef Hofbauer on mathematical ecology, chemical kinetics and population genetics, but especially on the new field of evolutionary game dynamics and replicator equations. Together with Martin Nowak, Christoph Hauert and Hannelore Brandt, he worked on game dynamical approaches to questions related with the evolution of cooperation in biological and human populations.
Since 1984, Sigmund has also worked as a part-time scientist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Lower Austria.
Sigmund was head of the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Vienna from 1983 to 1985, managing editor of the scientific journal Monatshefte für Mathematik from 1991 to 2001, vice-president (1995 to 1997) and president (1997 to 2001) of the Austrian Mathematical Society, corresponding member (1996) and full member (1999) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and member of the Leopoldina (2003). He has also given many plenary lectures, for instance at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1998. [1] He was awarded the Gauss Lectureship in 2003.
In 2010 he received an honorary doctorate (Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa) from the University of Helsinki. In 2012 he received the Isaacs Award.
During the last decade, Sigmund became increasingly interested in the history of mathematics and in particular, the Vienna Circle. He co-edited the mathematical works of Hans Hahn and Karl Menger and organised in 2001 an exhibition on the exodus of Austrian mathematicians fleeing the Nazis and in 2006 an exhibition on Kurt Gödel. From 2003 to 2005 he was vice-president of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
Because of his intimate knowledge of the Vienna Circle, Sigmund was invited to the Illinois Institute of Technology to speak at the inaugural Remembering Menger event on April 9, 2007.
Sigmund's publications include 133 scientific papers, including 18 in Nature ; 11 edited volumes; 25 essays; and 5 co-authored books.
Carl Menger von Wolfensgrün was an Austrian economist and the founder of the Austrian School of economics. Menger contributed to the development of the theories of marginalism and marginal utility, which rejected cost-of-production theory of value, such as developed by the classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. As a departure from such, he would go on to call his resultant perspective, the subjective theory of value.
Kurt Friedrich Gödel was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gábor Szegő was a Hungarian-American mathematician. He was one of the foremost mathematical analysts of his generation and made fundamental contributions to the theory of orthogonal polynomials and Toeplitz matrices building on the work of his contemporary Otto Toeplitz.
The University of Vienna is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest institutions of higher learning in Europe. The university is associated with 16 Nobel prize winners and has been the home to many scholars of historical and academic importance.
Alfred Tarski was a Polish-American logician and mathematician. A prolific author best known for his work on model theory, metamathematics, and algebraic logic, he also contributed to abstract algebra, topology, geometry, measure theory, mathematical logic, set theory, and analytic philosophy.
Karl Menger was an Austrian-American mathematician, the son of the economist Carl Menger. In mathematics, Menger studied the theory of algebras and the dimension theory of low-regularity ("rough") curves and regions; in graph theory, he is credited with Menger's theorem. Outside of mathematics, Menger has substantial contributions to game theory and social sciences.
The Vienna Circle of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, chaired by Moritz Schlick. The Vienna Circle had a profound influence on 20th-century philosophy, especially philosophy of science and analytic philosophy.
Emil Leon Post was an American mathematician and logician. He is best known for his work in the field that eventually became known as computability theory.
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Ivan Morton Niven was a Canadian-American mathematician, specializing in number theory and known for his work on Waring's problem. He worked for many years as a professor at the University of Oregon, and was president of the Mathematical Association of America. He was the author of several books on mathematics.
Friederich Pius Philipp Furtwängler was a German number theorist.
Hao Wang was a Chinese-American logician, philosopher, mathematician, and commentator on Kurt Gödel.
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Edward James McShane was an American mathematician noted for his advancements of the calculus of variations, integration theory, stochastic calculus, and exterior ballistics. His name is associated with the McShane–Whitney extension theorem and McShane integral. McShane was professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia, president of the American Mathematical Society, president of the Mathematical Association of America, a member of the National Science Board and a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Abe Sklar was an American mathematician and a professor of applied mathematics at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and the inventor of copulas in probability theory.
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