Stefan Bergman was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

-born American mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

 whose primary work was in complex analysis

Complex analysis

Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is useful in many branches of mathematics, including number theory and applied mathematics; as well as in physics,...

. He is best known for the kernel function he discovered while at Berlin University

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

 in 1922. This function is known today as the Bergman kernel

Bergman kernel

In the mathematical study of several complex variables, the Bergman kernel, named after Stefan Bergman, is a reproducing kernel for the Hilbert space of all square integrable holomorphic functions on a domain D in Cn....

. Bergman taught for many years at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, and served as an advisor to several students.

Biography

Born in Częstochowa

Czestochowa

Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship...

, Congress Poland

Congress Poland

The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...

, Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, Bergman received his Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 at Berlin University in 1921 for a dissertation

Thesis

A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...

 on Fourier analysis. His advisor, Richard von Mises, had a strong influence on him, lasting for the rest of his career. In 1933, Bergman was forced to leave his post at the Berlin University because he was a Jew

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

. He fled first to Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, where he stayed until 1939, and then to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. In 1939, he emigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he would remain for the rest of life. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

 in 1951. He died in Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

, aged 82.

The Bergman Prize

The Stefan Bergman Prize in mathematics, was initiated by Bergman's wife in her will, in memory of her husband's work. The American Mathematical Society

American Mathematical Society

The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...

 supports the prize and selects the committee of judges. The prize is awarded for:

1. the theory of the kernel function and its applications in real and complex analysis; or
2. function-theoretic methods in the theory of partial differential equation
   Partial differential equation
   In mathematics, partial differential equations are a type of differential equation, i.e., a relation involving an unknown function of several independent variables and their partial derivatives with respect to those variables...
   
   s of elliptic type
   Elliptic operator
   In the theory of partial differential equations, elliptic operators are differential operators that generalize the Laplace operator. They are defined by the condition that the coefficients of the highest-order derivatives be positive, which implies the key property that the principal symbol is...
   
    with a special attention to Bergman's and related operator methods.

See also

• Bergman kernel
  Bergman kernel
  In the mathematical study of several complex variables, the Bergman kernel, named after Stefan Bergman, is a reproducing kernel for the Hilbert space of all square integrable holomorphic functions on a domain D in Cn....
  
  
• Bergman space
  Bergman space
  In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, a Bergman space, named after Stefan Bergman, is a function space of holomorphic functions in a domain D of the complex plane that are sufficiently well-behaved at the boundary that they are absolutely integrable...
  
  
• Bergman–Weil integral representation
  Bergman–Weil formula
  In mathematics, the Bergman–Weil formula is an integral representation for holomorphic functions of several variables generalizing the Cauchy integral formula...