An Emigrant Scientist in Istanbul University: Richard Martin Edler von Mises (1883-1953)

Abstract

In 1933, numerous scholars left Germany due to unfavorable political conditions and immigrated to Turkey. One of them was Richard Martin Edler von Mises. A well-known applied mathematician, Richard von Mises was appointed professor at the Istanbul University, Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics. He introduced applied mathematics studies to the university with his lectures, publications, and the doctoral dissertations he supervised during his six-year stay in Turkey. These dissertations were the first doctoral studies in mathematics conducted at the Faculty of Science of Istanbul University. Thus, Richard von Mises contributed to the training of the first generation of mathematicians of the early Republican Era. Furthermore, von Mises was a supporter of positivist philosophy: It is during his Turkey years that he wrote his Kleines Lehrbuch des Positivismus, published in 1939 in Den Haag.