Walther von Dyck

Who was Walther von Dyck?

Walther Franz Anton von Dyck, born Dyck and later ennobled, was a German mathematician. He is credited with being the first to define a mathematical group, in the modern sense in. He laid the foundations of combinatorial group theory, being the first to systematically study a group by generators and relations. He also contributed to the study of closed parenthesis in Computer Science.

The Dyck language in formal language theory is named after him, as are Dyck's theorem and Dyck's surface in the theory of surfaces, together with the von Dyck groups, the Dyck tessellations, Dyck paths, and the Dyck graph.

Von Dyck was a student of Felix Klein, and served as chairman of the commission publishing Klein's encyclopedia. Von Dyck was also the editor of Kepler's works. He promoted technological education as rector of the Technische Hochschule of Munich.

Von Dyck is the son of the Bavarian painter Hermann Dyck.