Friedrich Heinrich Albert Wangerin

Friedrich Heinrich Albert Wangerin (1844 to 1933), usually called Albert Wangerin, was a German mathematician who worked on potential theory, spherical functions and differential geometry. Born in Greiffenberg in Pomerania, he studied at Halle and then at Königsberg, where he took his doctorate in 1866 and fell under the lasting influence of his teacher Franz Neumann. After teaching at schools in Berlin and Posen he became an extraordinary professor at the University of Berlin in 1876, and in 1882 he succeeded Eduard Heine at Halle, where he remained until he retired in 1919 and served as rector in 1910 to 1911. His two volume treatise on potential theory and spherical functions appeared in 1909 and 1921. His wider influence came through textbooks, encyclopaedia articles, historical writing, his part in editing the works of Gauss, Euler, Lambert and Lagrange, and his long work on the reviewing journal Fortschritte der Mathematik. He was elected to the Leopoldina academy in 1883 and served as its president from 1906 to 1921.