Carl Ludwig Siegel

Carl Ludwig Siegel
Carl Ludwig Siegel in 1975
Born	(1896-12-31)31 December 1896 Berlin, German Empire
Died	4 April 1981(1981-04-04) (aged 84) Göttingen, West Germany
Alma mater	University of Göttingen
Known for	Brauer–Siegel theorem Siegel modular form Siegel modular variety Siegel zero Smith–Minkowski–Siegel mass formula Thue–Siegel–Roth theorem Siegel's theorem on integral points Siegel domain
Awards	Wolf Prize (1978)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Institute for Advanced Study
Doctoral advisor	Edmund Landau
Doctoral students	Hel Braun Kurt Mahler Christian Pommerenke Theodor Schneider Jürgen Moser

Carl Ludwig Siegel (31 December 1896 – 4 April 1981) was a German mathematician specialising in analytic number theory. He is known for, amongst other things, his contributions to the Thue–Siegel–Roth theorem in Diophantine approximation, Siegel's method,^[1] Siegel's lemma and the Siegel mass formula for quadratic forms. He has been named one of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century.^[2][3]

André Weil, without hesitation, named^[4] Siegel as the greatest mathematician of the first half of the 20th century. Atle Selberg said of Siegel and his work:

He was in some ways, perhaps, the most impressive mathematician I have met. I would say, in a way, devastatingly so. The things that Siegel tended to do were usually things that seemed impossible. Also after they were done, they still seemed almost impossible.