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Thursday, October 23, 2008, at 7:00 p.m.
Constantin Caratheodory was one of the foremost mathematicians of the twentieth century. Born, raised, and educated in Germany, he was the scion of very prominent Greek families with roots in Constantinople and the island of Chios. He did seminal work on the theories of functions, measure and integration, partial differential equations, the calculus of variations, and the mathematical foundations of thermodynamics. From 1909 until his retirement in 1938, he held important positions in several prominent German universities and received many academic honors.
At the same time, he was deeply involved in the affairs of Greece and was instrumental in establishing the Ionian University in Smyrna (1919-22). Caratheodory was a humanist and an intellectual. His belief in the power of the German intellectual tradition and his attachment to a grand, expansive vision of Hellenism were unshakable. He lived to see both these worlds come to an end around him within a time span of less than twenty years; as a result, he had to make difficult decisions in very turbulent times.
Introduction by:
Dr Ioannis Karatzas, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University
Dr George C. Papanicolaou, Professor of Mathematics, Stanford University "The Early Life and Career of Constantin Caratheodory: Germany"
Dr Constantine Dafermos, University Professor of Applied Mathematics, Brown University "Constantin Caratheodory: From Smyrna and Athens to Munich"
Screening of documentary by Dr Vicki Hill: "Constantin Caratheodory: 1873-1950"