20
W. Gautschi
good part of Ostrowski's work has a definite constructive bent, and all of it
exhibits a masterly skill in the use of advanced mathematical techniques,
particularly analytic techniques of estimation. His work bears the stamp of
scholarly thoroughness, coming from a careful study of the literature, not
only the contemporary literature, but also, and perhaps more importantly,
the original sources.
Acknowledgments and sources. The author gratefully acknowledges help
from Dr. H. Wichers of the Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt to find all Ph.D. students
of Prof. Ostrowski and biographical data for some of them. He is indebted
to Professor D. Drasin for help with §2.5, to Mireille Richter for providing
information about her father's life, and to Dr. F. Nagel for details about
Howald's career. The photographs in Section 1 are, for the most part, from
the private property of Prof. Dr. R. Conzelmann. Those of Ostrowski in
Washington, D.C., and of Margret Ostrowski, are from the Oberwolfach
Photo Collection, and the one of Ostrowski in his 50s from the author's
own possession.
References
[1] Anonymous, Obituary: Theodore Samuel Motzkin, Professor of Mathematics,
19081970. J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 14 (1973), 271272.
[2] D. Bernoulli, Die Werke von Daniel Bernoulli. Bd. 1: Medizin und Physiolo-
gie. Mathematische Jugendschriften. Positionsastronomie. Birkhäuser, Basel
1996.
[3] L. Bieberbach, Theorie der geometrischen Konstruktionen. Birkhäuser, Basel
1952.
[4] J. R. Blum, Werner Gautschi, 19271959. Ann. Math. Statist. 31 (1960), 557.
[5] P. Bürgisser and M. Clausen, Algebraische Komplexitätstheorie. I. Eine Ein-
führung. Sém. Lothar. Combin. 36 (1996), Art. S36a.
[6] J. N. Crossley and J. B. Miller, Obituary: Carl Felix Moppert, 19201984. J.
Austral. Math. Soc. Ser. A 42 (1987), 14.
[7] J. H. Davenport, Y. Siret, and E. Tournier, Computer algebra. 2nd ed., Academic
Press Ltd., London 1993.
[8] M. Eichler, Alexander Ostrowski. Über sein Leben und Werk. Acta Arith. 51
(1988), 295298.
[9] D. K. Faddeev, On R. Jeltsch-Fricker's paper "In memoriam Alexander M.
Ostrowski (18931986)". Algebra i Analiz 2 (1990), no. 1, 242243; English
transl. Leningrad Math. J. 2 (1991), no. 1, 205206 (see [19]).
[10] Walter Gautschi, To Alexander M. Ostrowski on his ninetieth birthday. Linear
Algebra Appl. 52/53 (1983), xixiv.