Iris Runge. A life at the crossroads of mathematics, science and industry. With a foreword by Helmut Neunzert. Revised by the author and transl. from the German by Valentine A. Pakis (Q639237)

This is the English version of the biography of Iris Runge (1888-1966), the daughter of the Göttingen pioneer of applied mathematics Carl Runge (1856-1927), published originally in German in [\textit{R. Tobies}, ``Morgen möchte ich wieder 100 herrliche Sachen ausrechnen''. Iris Runge at Osram and Telefunken. Boethius. Texte und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften 61. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag (2010; Zbl 1194.01148)]. Given the fact that the lack of historical work on scientific and mathematical industrial research is partly due to the lack of accessible archival material, it was a lucky incident that Renate Tobies found the estate of Iris Runge in private possession in Ulm, where Runge died in 1966. This enabled the author to describe in dense detail and based on many documents (several of them published in the book) the daily activities in leading industrial research laboratories in Berlin such as Osram and Telefunken and the organizational interconnections between them and AEG, and other companies. It was Iris Runge's broad scientific training in mathematics, physics and chemistry (she actually took her Ph.D. in the latter field) which made her particularly suited for a job in industrial research. That her research would be on electrical engineering, particularly electric tubes, is typical too, given the traditionally high level of sophisticated mathematical training needed in this area. One of the most remarkable documents published in the book is a letter written by Erwin Schrödinger to Iris Runge in 1929 (p. 235-236), where the famous physicist takes seriously her commentary on his work on colourimetry. Runge published for instance an article on the latter topic in the Handwörterbuch der Naturwissenschaften of 1933. Not all phases of Runge's work could be equally well covered by the material available. But Tobies discusses among other things also Runge's interest in the history of science and mathematics. This development culminated in her biography of her father Carl Runge, published in German in 1949, a book for which she had been mostly known before. The original has been thoroughly reworked. The German university system is explained to English readers. In particular, a chapter 2.3 `The Development of Göttingen into the Prussian Center of Science and Mathematics' has been added. The current discussion on the notion of research technologists is documented in the book. The number of pages has increased by about ten percent but the volume looks thinner because of the attractive high quality paper which has been used. The many photographs and diagrams throughout the expensive book are therefore of even better quality than in the original, whose appendix with excellent mostly portrait photos is reproduced as well. The book is thoroughly researched and contains an extensive bibliography of over 30 pages. It covers with an interesting biographical case study the hitherto almost unexplored topic of the history of industrial mathematics and can be highly recommended.