Hans Hermes | |
|---|---|
 About 1970 in Oberwolfach | |
| Born | (1912-02-12)12 February 1912 |
| Died | 10 November 2003(2003-11-10) (aged 91) |
| Scientific career | |
| Theses |
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| Doctoral advisor | Adolf Kratzer,Heinrich Scholz (1938),Ernst Peschl (1947) |
Hans Hermes (German:[ˈhɛʁmɛs]; 12 February 1912 – 10 November 2003) was a Germanmathematician andlogician, who made significant contributions to the foundations ofmathematical logic.[1]
Hermes was born inNeunkirchen.[2] From 1931, he studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and philosophy at theUniversity of Freiburg. In 1937, he passed thestate examination in Münster and was attending there in 1938 when the physicistAdolf Kratzer was present. After that, he went on a scholarship to theUniversity of Göttingen and then became an assistant at theUniversity of Bonn. DuringWorld War II, he was a soldier on theChannel Island ofJersey until 1943 and then on to the Chemical Physics Institute of the Navy inKiel. At the end of the war, he moved toToplitzsee, where he was tasked with working on new encryption methods. In 1947, he became a lecturer at theUniversity of Bonn where he took hishabilitation, his thesis calledAnalytical manifolds in Riemannian areas. In 1949, he became a Professor at theUniversity of Münster, where he turned back to the subject of mathematical logic.[2]
Hans Hermes was a pioneer of theTuring machine as the central concept ofpredictability. In 1937, Hermes reported under the titleDefinite terms and predictable numbers an article about the Turing machine, which still adheres closely to Turing ideas, but doesn't contain the concepts of the universal machine and thedecision problem.
In 1952, he published together withHeinrich Scholz, an encyclopedia, which has significantly promoted the development of mathematical logic inGermany.[3]
In 1953, he took over management of the influential Institute for Mathematical logic and basic research at the University of Münster, from Heinrich Scholz.[4] Under his leadership, the Institute became a noted centre for attracting young researchers, both within the Federal Republic but also abroad. With Hermes there, among others, wereWilhelm Ackermann andGisbert Hasenjaeger. In 1966, he accepted an appointment to the newly established Chair of Mathematical Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics at theUniversity of Freiburg and began to build an eponymous department at the Mathematical Institute, becoming Professor Emeritus there in 1977.
In 1954, Hermes produced an informalproof, that the possibilities of programmableeigenvalues include thepredictable functions, so the calculating machines have the samecardinality as Turing machines re:Turing completeness.[2]
Hermes textbook's, as well as his scientific work, persuadedHeinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus to note the originality, accuracy and intuitive clarity of his textbooks.[2] He was also an outstanding academic teacher who knew how to convey difficult issues and complicated proofs and make them extremely understandable.[2]
Hermes was also worked on the compilation and publication of the papers ofGottlob Frege, already begun by Scholz. In 1962, he was one of the founding members of the German Association for mathematical logic and for basic research of the exact sciences (DVMLG).[5] In 1950, he was with Arnold Schmidt and Jürgen von Kempski, co-founder of the Archive for Mathematical Logic and Foundations of Mathematics. In 1967, he became a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.[6]
