The honors class. Hilbert's problems and their solvers (Q2778320)

This book is a popular account on mathematics and mathematicians, modeled on the problems listed by Hilbert in 1900 at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris. After a biography of Hilbert, the author divides the book into five parts : the foundation problems (problems 1, 2, 10), the foundations of specific areas (problems 3, 4, 5, 6), number theory (problems 7, 8, 9, 11, 12), algebra and geometry (problems 14, 15, 16, 17, 18) and analysis (problems 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23). NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEHilbert problems are mainly a motivation to provide biographies of mathematicians connected with their resolution. By alphabetic order, and quoting only the most extensive ones, one finds description of the life and work of Artin, Bieberbach, Bolibruch, Cantor, Cohen, Davis, Dehn, Gelfond, Gleason, Gödel, Hasse, Kolmogorov, Matiyasevich, Montgomery, Poincaré, Putnam, Julia Robinson, Siegel, Takagi, and Zippin. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEAnalysts may regret the much too short description of the three Hilbert's problems devoted to the calculus of variations and partial differential equations. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEAn English translation of Hilbert's conference in Paris is given as an Appendix, and the book has an Index and a substantial bibliography. It also contains a nice collection of pictures of mathematicians. It is a good contribution to the popularization of mathematics.