Biography:Otto H. Kegel
Otto Helmut Kegel | |
|---|---|
 Kegel in 2010 | |
| Born | 20 July 1934 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | 20 July 2025 (aged 91) |
| Education | Goethe University Frankfurt (PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Freiburg |
| Doctoral students | Felix Leinen |
Otto Helmut Kegel (de; 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.[1][2] His parents were German, and the family returned to Germany in 1938.[3] He attended high school in Frankfurt am Main.[3]
Kegel received his PhD from Goethe University Frankfurt in 1961, with a thesis titled Vertauschbarkeit von Untergruppen und Kompositionsstruktur in endlichen Gruppen (Commutability of subgroups and composition structure in finite groups) and supervised by Reinhold Baer.[4] He completed his habilitation at the same institution in 1966.[5]
In 1962, Kegel gave a talk titled Locally finite groups with a partition at the International Congress of Mathematicians, in Stockholm, Sweden.[6]
Kegel started at Queen Mary College in the University of London as a reader in 1968, and was promoted to professor in 1970.[3] He moved to the University of Freiburg beginning in 1975, where he worked as a professor until his retirement in 1999.[3][5][7] He was an editor for Archiv der Mathematik from 1975 until 1990.[5][8]
Death
Kegel died on 20 July 2025, his 91st birthday.[9]
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Wehrfritz, was influential in the subfield.[3] Prime graphs are also known as Gruenberg-Kegel graphs due to early unpublished work of Kegel with Karl W. Gruenberg on the topic.[3]
Awards and honors
In 1985, Archiv der Mathematik dedicated an issue to Kegel, in honor of his contributions to the journal as an author, editor, and on the advisory board.[8] A conference Algebra and Group Theory was held in Kegel's honor at the University of Upper Alsace in 2015.[10] The 2024 edition of the Ischia Group Theory conference was also dedicated to Kegel, marking his 90th birthday.[11]
Selected publications
- Kegel, Otto H. (1962). "Sylow-Gruppen und Subnormalteiler endlicher Gruppen". Mathematische Zeitschrift 78: 205–221. doi:10.1007/BF01195169.
- Kegel, Otto H.; Wehrfritz, Bertram A. F. (1973). Locally finite groups. North-Holland Publishing Co..
References
- ↑ "Kegel, Otto H.". Deutsche Biographie. https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd1095794965.html?language=en.
- ↑ "Zur Person". Badische Zeitung. 20 July 2004. https://www.badische-zeitung.de/zur-person-xra3sf4ix.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Kuzucuoǧlu, Mahmut (2025). "Otto H. Kegel (1934– 2025)". Advances in Group Theory and Applications 21: 1–9. doi:10.32037/agta-2025-004. ISSN 2499-1287.
- ↑ Otto H. Kegel at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender. K. G. Saur Verlag. 2009. ISBN 978-3-598-23629-7.
- ↑ "International Congress of Mathematicians | Programme". International Mathematical Union. 1962. https://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/ICM/Proceedings/ICM1962.p/ICM1962.p.ocr.pdf.
- ↑ "Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Otto H. Kegel". Badische Zeitung. 31 July 2025. https://bztrauer.de/traueranzeige/92113/prof-otto-kegel.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Dedication to Prof. Dr. Otto H. Kegel". Archiv der Mathematik 85 (1): 1–2. 1985. doi:10.1007/s00013-005-0009-y.
- ↑ "Otto H. Kegel | 20 July 1934 - 20 July 2025". Badische Zeitung. 26 July 2025. https://bztrauer.de/en/memorial/92049/otto-h-kegel.
- ↑ "Conference: Algebra and Group Theory". University of Upper Alsace. http://www.lmia.uha.fr/conf-kegel/Kegeliweb/Home.html.
- ↑ "Ischia Group Theory 2024 (conference homepage)". https://sites.google.com/unisa.it/igt.
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