Leopold Vietoris
Encyclopedia
Leopold Vietoris was an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n 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....

 and a World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 veteran who gained additional fame by becoming a supercentenarian
Supercentenarian
A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians....

 (unusual especially for a male). He was born in Radkersburg and died in Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

.

He was known for his contributions to topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...

 --notably the Mayer-Vietoris sequence
Mayer-Vietoris sequence
In mathematics, particularly algebraic topology and homology theory, the Mayer–Vietoris sequence is an algebraic tool to help compute algebraic invariants of topological spaces, known as their homology and cohomology groups. The result is due to two Austrian mathematicians, Walther Mayer and...

-- and other fields of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, his interest in mathematical history
History of mathematics
The area of study known as the history of mathematics is primarily an investigation into the origin of discoveries in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, an investigation into the mathematical methods and notation of the past....

 and for being a keen alpinist
Alpinist
Alpinist is a quarterly American magazine focused on mountaineering ascents worldwide. It was originally published out of Jackson, Wyoming and was founded in 2002...

. Vietoris attended the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

, where he earned his Ph.D in 1920.

Biography

He studied mathematics and geometry at the Technical University in Vienna. Vietoris was drafted in 1914 in World War I and was wounded in September that same year. On 4 November 1918, one week pre signing The Treaty of Versailles, he became an Italian prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

. In autumn 1928, he married his first wife Klara Riccabona, who later died while giving birth to their sixth daughter. In 1936, he married Klara's sister, Maria Riccabona.

With his wife Maria Josefa Vincentia, born von Riccabona zu Reichenfels (18 July 1901 – 24 March 2002), dying at age 100
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...

, they became one of the eldest couples of the world, having the seventh-highest aggregate age of a married couple (total combined age). Vietoris died a few days after her death.

Vietoris is survived by his six daughters, 17 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren.

He lends his name to a few mathematical concepts:
  • Vietoris topology (see topological space
    Topological space
    Topological spaces are mathematical structures that allow the formal definition of concepts such as convergence, connectedness, and continuity. They appear in virtually every branch of modern mathematics and are a central unifying notion...

    )
  • Vietoris homology
    Homology (mathematics)
    In mathematics , homology is a certain general procedure to associate a sequence of abelian groups or modules with a given mathematical object such as a topological space or a group...

    (see homology theory
    Homology theory
    In mathematics, homology theory is the axiomatic study of the intuitive geometric idea of homology of cycles on topological spaces. It can be broadly defined as the study of homology theories on topological spaces.-The general idea:...

    )
  • Mayer–Vietoris sequence
  • Vietoris–Begle mapping theorem
    Vietoris–Begle mapping theorem
    The Vietoris–Begle mapping theorem is a result in the mathematical field of algebraic topology. It is named for Leopold Vietoris and Edward G. Begle. The statement of the theorem, below, is as formulated by Stephen Smale.-Theorem:...

  • Vietoris–Rips complex
    Vietoris–Rips complex
    In topology, the Vietoris–Rips complex, also called the Vietoris complex or Rips complex, is an abstract simplicial complex that can be defined from any metric space M and distance δ by forming a simplex for every finite set of points that has diameter at most δ...



Vietoris lived to be 110 years and 309 days old, and became the oldest verified Austrian man ever.

See also

  • List of Austrian supercentenarians
  • List of the verified oldest men
  • List of veterans of World War I who died in 2002
  • Longevity
    Longevity
    The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or known as "long life", especially when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than expected ....

  • Oldest people
    Oldest people
    This is a list of tables of the verified oldest people in the world in ordinal rank, such as oldest person or oldest man. In these tables, a supercentenarian is considered 'verified' if his or her claim has been validated by an international body that specifically deals in longevity research, such...


External links

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