HAIMOVICI, MENDEL

HAIMOVICI, MENDEL (1906–1973), Romanian mathematician. Born in Jassy, he completed his mathematical studies at the University in Jassy (1930). In 1932–33 he studied for his doctorate at the University of Rome, completing his thesis in 1933 in the field of the mechanics of fluids: "Sur l'écoulement des liquides pesants dans un plan vertical," presented in French to a committee headed by Tulio Levi-Civita. Upon his return to Jassy, Haimovici was appointed assistant lecturer at the Mathematical Seminary of the local university headed by Alexandru Myller, in the field of analytical geometry (1933–40). Excluded from the university by the racial laws during the Holocaust period, he returned to his position only after the collapse of the pro-Nazi regime, on August 23, 1944. In 1945 he became assistant professor, in 1946 full professor, and in 1948 chairman of the theoretical mechanics department at the university. In 1949 he became a corresponding member and in 1963 a full member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, mathematical sciences section. In 1949 he became the director of the Mathematical Institute of the Jassy branch of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. Haimovici was a specialist in differential geometry and mathematical analysis. He made contributions to Finsler spaces, mechanics, theory of outer differential systems, and Pfaff systems of equations. He published numerous studies – books and articles – in these fields. His brother, adolf haimovici (1912–1993), was also a well-known mathematician, a specialist in geometry and professor of mathematical analysis at Jassy University.

bibliography:

G.S. Aandonie, Istoria matematicii in Romaniai, 3 (1967), 106–12, 147–55; S. Marcus and C. Roman, in: N. Cajal and H. Kuller (eds.), Contributia evreilor din Romania la cultura si civilizatie (1996), 116–17.

[Lucian-Zeev Herscovici (2^nd ed)]