Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi died due to small pox on February 18, 1851. He was buried in Berlin.

Due to his eminence as a great German mathematician, his grave has been preserved at a cemetery in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin, the Friedhof I der Dreifaltigkeits-Kirchengemeinde (61 Baruther Street).

A crater on the moon has been named after him. Several theorems, equations, algorithms, sums, polynomials, symbols and functions in mathematics bear his name thereby acknowledging his vast contribution to the field.

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi was the second of the four children born to banker Simon Jacobi on December 10, 1804 in Potsdam. He belonged to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. His elder brother Moritz von Jacobi went on to become an engineer and physicist.

Jacobi was initially tutored by his uncle, Lehman who taught him the basics of classical language and elements of mathematics. Only at the age of twelve did Jacobi enter Potsdam Gymnasium for a formal schooling.

At the Gymnasium, Jacobi was taught classical languages, German history as well as mathematics. It was due to the first-rate education received from his uncle that he excelled in all divisions so much so that he was promoted to senior year within six months.

Though young Jacobi was learned enough to enter university, the minimum age requirement of sixteen years prolonged his university admission. He stayed in the senior class until 1821.

It was while at the senior class that he employed his time to advance his knowledge in other subjects, namely philology, history, mathematics and languages, Latin and Greek. He made a first-hand attempt at research by solving quintic equation through radicals.

Following his faith conversion and doctorate degree, Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi was offered a teaching position by Berlin University for the 1825–26 academic year. He taught the theory of curves and surfaces.

In 1827, he was appointed mathematics professor at the Königsberg University. Two years later, he became a tenured professor, a position which he served until 1842.

He gained fame for his work on elliptic functions and their relation to elliptic theta functions. His research and findings were enthusiastically received by the great French mathematician Adrien Marie Legendre.

Jacobi was the first mathematician to formulate a theory of elliptic functions based on four theta functions. Theta functions have great importance in mathematical physics because of their role in inverse problem for periodic and quasi-periodic flow.

In 1829, his findings in elliptic functions were published in the treatise ‘Fundamenta nova theoriae functionum ellipticarum’ (New Foundations of the Theory of Elliptic Functions).

Jacobi, through his treatise ‘Fundamenta nova theoriae functionum ellipticarum’ and later papers in ‘Crelle's Journal’, made revolutionary discovery in the field of elliptic functions. His theory of elliptic functions based on four theta functions has great importance in the field of mathematical physics.

Another important discovery made by him is his research in differential equations and their application to the differential equations of dynamics. He was also one of the early founders of the theory of determinants. He invented the functional determinant, which now bear his name.