Marcel Grossmann (Hungarian: Grossmann Marcell, April 9, 1878, Budapest – September 7, 1936, Zurich) was a mathematician of Jewish ancestry, and a friend and classmate of Albert Einstein. He became a Professor of Mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, today the ETH Zurich, specializing in descriptive geometry.

It was Grossmann who emphasized the importance of a non-Euclidean geometry called elliptic geometry to Einstein, which was a necessary step in the development of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Abraham Pais's book on Einstein suggests that Grossman mentored Einstein in tensor theory as well.

The community of relativists celebrates Grossmann's contributions to physics by organizing Marcel Grossman meetings every three years.

References

* A. Einstein & M. Grossmann (1914), "Entwurf einer verallgemeinerten Relativitätstheorie und einer Theorie der Gravitation", Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, 62: 225-261.

External links

* Marcel Grossmann meetings
* O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Marcel Grossmann", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Grossmann.html .
* Marcel Grossmann at the Mathematics Genealogy Project