Profile
David Hilbert: The Mathematician Who Set the Agenda
German mathematician and champion of mathematical foundations, born on 23 January 1862
David Hilbert was born on 23 January 1862 in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, and studied at its university. He quickly gained a reputation for tackling hard problems and simplifying whole areas of mathematics.
In 1895 he moved to the University of Göttingen, where he built one of the greatest mathematics departments in history. His book on the foundations of geometry set out clear, logical rules from which the whole subject could be built.
In 1900 in Paris he challenged the world with a list of famous open problems that guided mathematicians for a century. His Hilbert spaces later became essential to quantum mechanics, and his programme to secure the foundations of mathematics inspired the work of Gödel and Turing.
Career highlights
- 1862Born in Königsberg: in East Prussia
- 1885Doctorate: at the University of Königsberg
- 1895Joins Göttingen: building a world-leading department
- 1899Foundations of Geometry: reshapes how geometry is built from axioms
- 1900Paris address: sets out his celebrated list of problems
- 1915General relativity race: works on the field equations alongside Einstein
- 1920sHilbert's programme: seeks a secure foundation for all mathematics
- 1943Dies in Göttingen: during the Second World War
Did you know?His gravestone carries the words 'We must know, we will know', a motto he gave in a famous 1930 radio address.
