Gödel, Kurt

Gödel, Kurt (gö`dəl), 1906–78, American mathematician and logician, b. Brünn (now Brno, Czech Republic), grad. Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1930). He came to the United States in 1940 and was naturalized in 1948. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, until 1953, when he became professor of mathematics at Princeton Univ. He is best known for his work in mathematical logic, particularly for his theorem (1931) stating that the various branches of mathematics are based in part on propositions that are not provable within the system itself, although they may be proved by means of logical (metamathematical) systems external to mathematics. Gödel shared the 1951 Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences with Julian Schwinger, Harvard mathematical physicist. His writings include Foundations of Mathematics (1969).

Bibliography

See H. Wang, Reflections on Kurt Gödel (1987); E. Nagel et al., Gödel's Proof (rev. ed. 2001); R. Goldstein, The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel (2005); P. Yourgrau, A World without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein (2005).

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Gödel, Kurt

(born April 28, 1906, Brünn, Austria-Hungary—died Jan. 14, 1978, Princeton, N.J., U.S.) Austrian-born U.S. mathematician and logician. He began his career on the faculty of the University of Vienna, where he produced his groundbreaking proof (see Gödel's theorem) in the early 1930s. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1940 and taught at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. There his close friendship with Albert Einstein led him into the field of general relativity theory and to solutions of some of Einstein's equations. A quiet and unassuming man, Gödel did not at first recognize the importance of his famous theorem, and later in life he declined many of the honours that it brought him.

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Gödel, Kurt - Kurt Gödel