Niels Henrik Abel

Born: 5 Aug 1802 in Frindoe (near Stavanger), Norway
Died: 6 April 1829 in Froland, Norway

  Niels Abel was one of the innovators in the field of elliptic functions, discoverer of Abelian functions and one of the leaders in the use of rigor in mathematics. In 1823 proved that there was no algebraic formula for the solution of a general polynomial equation of the fifth degree.
His work was so revolutionary that one mathematician stated: "He has left mathematicians something to keep them busy for five hundred years." However, his life did not mirror his mathematical success and his story is one of the most tragic in the sciences.

-From a poor family
-6 brothers
-At age 13 went to to the Cathedral Schooll in Oslo (with inexperienced and incompetent instructors. One of those was dismissed for beating a student to death)
-Soon teachers saw Abel's ability in matheematics
-Before entering the University of Oslo inn 1821, Abel's father died, leaving his son to support his mother and six siblings
-In 1823, he published his first importantt paper on definite integrals, which included the first ever solutions of an integral equation.
-He sent copy of his work on the quintic eequation to Gauss. However, the German rejected it as "another of those monstrosities" without ever reading it.
-After some trips Abel returned to Norway in failure. Not only was he unable to get the recognition he deserved and the professorship he desperately needed, he was in debt and had contracted tuberculosis. To add insult to injury, he had been passed over to fill a vacancy in the mathematics department at the university. The position had instead been given to his friend Holmboe, who had accepted it only after they threatened to give the job to a foreigner if he did not agree to take it. Abel survived on grants and gifts from both the university and his friends.

However, his mathematics did not suffer. He produced several papers on the theory of equations, including sections that introduced a new class of equations, now known as the Abelian. Meanwhile, he gained a rival in his study of elliptic functions and integrals in Carl Jacobi. Spurred on by his competitor and also fearing his illness would soon finish him, Abel production on the subject increased at a blazing pace. His work laid the foundation of all further studies into the field. Finally, people began to notice. Legendre, who had failed to read his masterpiece, started a correspondence with both Abel and Jacobi, praising them as two of "the foremost analysts of our times." Slowly, mathematicians all across Europe were calling for a professorship for the Norwegian.
In 1829, he suffered an attack from his tuberculosis that would slowly kill him

You can find more about Abel here.

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