Richard Courant

Richard Courant
Courant in 1969
Born	(1888-01-08)January 8, 1888 Lublinitz, German Empire (now Lubliniec, Poland)
Died	January 27, 1972(1972-01-27) (aged 84) New Rochelle, New York, United States
Citizenship	Germany United States
Alma mater	University of Zurich University of Göttingen
Known for	Courant number Courant minimax principle Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy condition Courant's nodal domain theorem[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Göttingen University of Münster University of Cambridge New York University
Thesis	On the application of Dirichlet's principle to the problems of conformal mapping  (1910)
Doctoral advisor	David Hilbert
Doctoral students	Leifur Ásgeirsson Herbert Busemann William Feller Kurt Friedrichs Harold Grad Fritz John Joseph Keller Edgar Krahn Martin Kruskal Anneli Lax Hans Lewy Otto Neugebauer Franz Rellich

Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German-American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book What is Mathematics?, co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of real analysis, mathematical physics, the calculus of variations and partial differential equations. He wrote textbooks widely used by generations of students of physics and mathematics. He is also known for founding the institute now bearing his name.