Ferdinand Minding
Born	Dec 30, 1805/Jan 11, 1806 Kalisz
Died	May 1, 1885/May 13, 1885 Dorpat
Citizenship	Russian
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Berlin, University of Dorpat
Alma mater	University of Halle
Known for	invariance of geodesic curvature, geodesics on pseudosphere, bending of surfaces
Influences	Gauss
Influenced	Karl Peterson
Notable awards	Demidov Prize of St Peterburg Academy of Sciences (1861)
Notes Birth and death dates are given according to Neue Deutsche Biographie (in Julian and Gregorian calendar)

Ferdinand Minding (Russian: Фердинанд Готлибович Миндинг; January 11 1806 [O.S. December 30] - May 13 [O.S. May 1] 1885) was a German–Russian mathematician known for his contributions to differential geometry. He continued the work of Gauss on differential geometry of surfaces, especially its intrinsic aspects. Minding considered questions of bending of surfaces and proved the invariance of geodesic curvature. He studied ruled surfaces, developable surfaces and surfaces of revolution and determined geodesics on the pseudosphere. Minding's results on the geometry of geodesic triangles on a surface of constant curvature (1840) anticipated Beltrami's approach to the foundations of non-Euclidean geometry (1868).

Minding was largely self-taught in mathematics. He attended lectures in the University of Halle and eventually graduated with a thesis "De valore intergralium duplicium quam proxime inveniendo" (1829). Minding worked as a teacher in Elberfeld and as a university lecturer in Berlin. His work on statics drew attention of Alexander von Humboldt. However, his 1842 bid for election to Berlin Academy, supported by Dirichlet, failed and in 1843 he moved to the University of Dorpat, where he occupied a post of a professor of mathematics for the next 40 years. In Dorpat he taught Karl Peterson and supervised his doctoral thesis that established the Gauss–Bonnet theorem and derived Gauss–Codazzi equations. Minding also worked on differential equations (Demidov prize of the St Petersburg Academy in 1861), algebraic functions, continued fractions and analytical mechanics. His list of publications contains some 60 titles, including several books. Many of his scientific accomplishments were only properly recognized after his death.

[edit] References

• Gottlob Kirschmer: Minding, Ferdinand. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, S. 536 f. (German)

[edit] External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Ferdinand Minding", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Minding.html .