Alexander Aigner

Alexander Aigner (18 May 1909 – 2 September 1988) was an Austrian mathematician specialising in number theory, and a full university professor of mathematics at the Karl Franzens University in Graz. During World War II he was part of a group of five mathematicians, which was recruited by the military cryptanalyst Wilhelm Fenner, and which included Ernst Witt, Georg Aumann, Oswald Teichmueller and Johann Friedrich Schultze, to form the backbone of the new mathematical research department in the late 1930s, which would eventually be called Section IVc of Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. (abbr. OKW/Chi). The group was led by the German professor of mathematics Wolfgang Franz.

Life

Alexander Aigner was the son of noted medical doctor Oktavia Aigner-Rollett and anatomist Walter Aigner (1878–1950). He was the grandson of noted physiologist and histologist of Alexander Rollett. He studied mathematics and physics in at the University of Graz. In 1936, he was put forward by Dr. Karl Brauner for promotion to Dr. Phil, with Dr. Tonio Rella advising, with a thesis titled: Mathematical treatment of the hermit game in the plane and in space. About the possibility of in square bodies (German: Mathematische Behandlung des Einsiedlerspieles in der Ebene und im Raume. Über die Möglichkeit von in quadratischen Körpern). Alexander Aigner: Number theory. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 1975. Alexander Aigner: Tangents to the joy. Graz, 1978. Special number of the reports of the Mathematical-Statistical Section at the Research Center Graz.