Niels Henrik Abel

Niels Henrik Abel lived a tragically short life. His early life was fraught with familial problems and financial difficulties, and in spite of all the challenges he faced, he emerged as one of the brightest mathematicians of his era.

He died of tuberculosis on 6 April 1829, at the age of just 26. At the time of his death he was engaged to Christine Kemp and had a new job as a professor at the University of Berlin waiting for him.

Niels Henrik Abel was born on 5 August 1802 in Nedstrand, Norway. His parents were Søren Georg Abel and Anne Marie Simonsen, and he was the second of their seven children.

His father was a well-educated though poor Lutheran minister who found appointment as a pastor at Gjerstad in 1804 and moved his family there.

His mother hailed from a wealthy family and enjoyed socializing. She was an alcoholic and took little interest in caring for her large family.

His father, a graduate from the University of Copenhagen, educated his children at home using handwritten books. Pastor Abel also worked for the creation of separate Norwegian institutions—particularly a university and a national bank.

In 1815, his father decided to send Niels’ elder brother Hans to the Cathedral School in Christiania (Oslo). However, when the time came for Hans to leave home, Hans became very depressed and hence, his father decided not to send him away. So, instead Niels was sent to the school.

His first article was published in "Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne", Norway’s first scientific journal, in 1823. He soon wrote several other articles, but the journal believed that his articles were beyond the comprehension of the common man.

The same year, he received a gift of 100 speciedaler from Professor Rasmussen so that could travel to Copenhagen and visit Ferdinand Degen and other mathematicians there. There he did some work on Fermat’s Last Theorem.

Over the next few years he travelled a lot and met fellow mathematicians living in different parts of Europe. It was during this time that he discovered the Abelian functions, and formulated many of his theorems and formulae.

In spite of dying at the young age of 26, Niels Henrik Abel greatly enriched the field of mathematics with his findings and discoveries. Several theorems and equations are named in the honor of this great mathematician including Abel's binomial theorem, Abel equation of the first kind, Abel's irreducibility theorem, and Abel's theorem.