Otto H. Kegel

Otto Helmut Kegel (; 20 July 1934 – 20 July 2025) was a German mathematician who worked on group theory. He was a professor at the University of Freiburg.

Early life and career Kegel was born on 20 July 1934 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His parents were German, and the family returned to Germany in 1938. He attended high school in Frankfurt am Main. He completed his habilitation at the same institution in 1966.

Kegel started at Queen Mary College in the University of London as a reader in 1968, and was promoted to professor in 1970. He was an editor for Archiv der Mathematik from 1975 until 1990.

Research Kegel worked in the field of group theory, a part of abstract algebra. His book on locally finite groups, written with Bertram Wehrfritz, was influential in the subfield. A conference Algebra and Group Theory was held in Kegel's honor at the University of Upper Alsace in 2015. The 2024 edition of the Ischia Group Theory conference was also dedicated to Kegel, marking his 90th birthday.

Selected publications