Zermelo, Ernst
Zermelo, Ernst
Born July 27, 1871, in Berlin; died May 21, 1953, in Freiburg. German mathematician.
Zermelo graduated from the University of Berlin in 1894. His principal works deal with set theory, for which he provided a general axiomatization. He proved that every set can be well-ordered. His contributions influenced the development of set theory and generated considerable discussion. Zermelo also produced works dealing with the calculus of variations and with problems of the application of probability theory to statistical mechanics.