1888-1972

German-American mathematician who significantly influenced the development of physics, computer science, and other disciplines through applied work on variational calculus and numerical analysis. In Methods of Mathematical Physics (1924-7) he and David Hilbert developed techniques later important in quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. Courant was a principal coordinator and catalyst of twentieth-century mathematical research, as the impact of the Mathematics Institute in Göttingen and Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University attest.