1849-1917

German mathematician who established the mathematical framework for the study of abstract groups. In particular, his paper on group characters was of fundamental importance to this field. In 1897, learning of work on matrices by Molien, Frobenius successfully reformulated much of his own work. Frobenius's work on character theory was used by William Burnside and received favorable mention in Burnside's Theory of Groups of Finite Order. Frobenius's theory on finite groups provided important mathematical tools to the field of quantum mechanics.