1896-1981

German mathematician who won recognition for his work on the theory of numbers. Born in Berlin, Siegel held professorships at Frankfurt and Göttingen from 1922 to 1940. He subsequently traveled to the United States and worked at Princeton University until 1951, then returned to Göttingen. Siegel built upon the work of Pierre de Fermat, and much of his ensuing work on quadratic forms was based upon the earlier endeavors of Joseph Lagrange, Carl Gauss, Ferdinand Eisenstein, and Charles Hermite.