Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen

Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen (15 February 1839 – 6 January 1920) was a Danish mathematician. He is known for work on the enumerative geometry of conic sections, algebraic surfaces, and history of mathematics.

Early life and education Zeuthen was born in Grimstrup near Varde where his father was a minister. In 1849, his father moved to a church in Sorø where Zeuthen began his secondary schooling. In 1857 he entered the University of Copenhagen to study mathematics and graduated with a master's degree in 1862. Following this he earned a scholarship to study abroad, and decided to visit Paris where he studied geometry with Michel Chasles.

Career After returning to Copenhagen, Zeuthen submitted his doctoral dissertation on a new method to determine the characteristics of conic systems in 1865. Enumerative geometry remained his focus up until 1875.

In 1871, he was appointed as an extraordinary professor at the University of Copenhagen, as well as becoming an editor of Matematisk Tidsskrift, a position he held for 18 years. For 39 years he served as secretary of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, during which he also lectured at the Polytechnic Institute. In 1886, he was promoted to ordinary professor at the University of Copenhagen, where he twice served as rector.

After 1875, Zeuthen began to make contributions in other areas such as mechanics and algebraic geometry, as well as being recognised as an expert on the history of medieval and Greek mathematics. He wrote 40 papers and books on the history of mathematics, which covered many topics and several periods. He was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1897 at Zurich, in 1904 at Heidelberg, and in 1908 at Rome.