Gösta Mittag-Leffler

Gösta Mittag-Leffler
Gösta Mittag-Leffler
Born16 March 1846
Died7 July 1927(1927-07-07) (aged 81)
CitizenshipSwedish
Alma materUppsala University (PhD, 1872)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Thesis Om skiljandet af rötterna till en synektisk funktion af en variabel  (1872)
Doctoral advisorGöran Dillner
Doctoral studentsIvar Fredholm
Hjalmar Mellin
Gustav Cassel

Magnus Gustaf "Gösta" Mittag-Leffler (16 March 1846 – 7 July 1927) was a Swedish mathematician. His mathematical contributions are connected chiefly with the theory of functions that today is called complex analysis. He founded the prestigious mathematical periodical Acta Mathematica and was its editor for 40 years. He took great trouble in procuring Sofia Kovalevskaya a position of full professor of mathematics in Stockholm University. Mittag-Leffler was also responsible for inducing the Nobel committee to recognize and award Marie Curie as an equal contributor to the discoveries "on the radiation phenomena" along with her husband Pierre Curie.

After World War I, Mittag-Leffler gave his estate in Djursholm and its remarkable library of books on mathematics to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; it became the foundation of the modern Mittag-Leffler Institute.