Richard-von-Mises Lectures
The Institute for Mathematics of Humboldt University at Berlin, in particular its research groups in probability and statistics and in applied mathematics, organize, since 2007, an annual
Richard-von-Mises-Lecture
For this lecture series, internationally leading mathematicians with essential contributions to the development of probability and statistics resp. applied mathematics are invited as speakers. The lectures take place on the Campus for Science and Technology Adlershof, hosting the Institute for Mathematics of Humboldt University at Berlin.
Richard von Mises was professor at the University of Berlin from 1920 to 1933, where he headed the Institute for Applied Mathematics. He established a trend-setting study program in Applied Mathematics successfully completed by many students. One may mention in the first place the practical course in mathematics he initiated, and the mathematics ecercises in astronomy, geodesics and other disciplines. He put emphasis on mathematical strength in applied mathematics which he did not consider a domain of pure mathematics. He regarded the classification into pure and applied mathematics as historically grown and excessively relative.
Richard von Mises was a very versatile scientist. His fields of activity comprised practical analysis, differential and integro-differential equations, mechanics, hydro- and aerodynamics, constructive geometry, probability theory, statistics and philosophy. Already prior to World War I he dealt with airplanes, first as a pilot, then as a designer and academic. His book ''Fluglehre'' was an appreciated contribution to this emerging field of technology.
The Institute for Mathematics feels committed to the tradition of von Mises. His name in known worldwide and is inseparably connected with the evolutionary history of probability theory and statistics as well as applied mathematics. The site Adlershof with its traditions in the development of aeronautics and more recently astronautics, with Germany's first airport at Johannisthal in its immediate vicinity, is a worthy and appropriate frame for the distinction of Richard von Mises by such a lecture series.