David Hilbert

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David Hilbert. Picture taken in 1912.
David Hilbert. Picture taken in 1912.

David Hilbert (January 23, 1862, Wehlau, East Prussia–February 14, 1943, Göttingen, Germany) was a German mathematician. Most people think he was one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He got his reputation as a great mathematician and scientist by inventing or developing a several ideas, such as invariant theory, the axiomization of geometry, and the notion of Hilbert space.This is one of the foundations of functional analysis. Hilbert and his students supplied significant portions of the mathematic infrastructure neded for quantum mechanics and general relativity. He is one of the founders of proof theory, mathematical logic. He was also one of the fist people to make the distinction between mathematics and metamathematics, and warmly defended Cantor's set theory and transfinite numbers. A famous example of his world leadership in mathematics is his 1900 presentation of a set of problems that set the course for much of the mathematical research of the 20th century.He also wrote a book in 1899 which then broght to new editions.

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