(April 16, 1823 – October 11, 1852)

Gotthold Eisenstein is among the most brilliant mathematicians this world ever produced. Like Gustav Jacobi, he was a German Jew whose articles featured regularly in the prestigious Crelle’s Journal. Like Henrik Abel, he was a top genius whose abilities penury hindered. And like Évariste Galois, he joined a political unrest which landed him in prison. But within all that was a mathematician of the highest order. Eisenstein excelled in all branches of maths; and even played piano like a pro. Algebra, Analysis and Number Theory interested him the most. He was so proficient in Number Theory as to resolve problems which defeated Carl Friedrich Gauss (the presumably indomitable Prince of Mathematics). August Crelle, (the proprietor of Crelle’s Journal: who helped Henrik Abel and Jakob Steiner), brought Eisenstein to Alexander von Humboldt’s attention; and he mentored him. Contemporary scholars who reviewed his works were awed by his finesse, ingenuity and rigor. Even Gauss regarded him highly. The same is true for Riemann, Dirichlet, Jacobi and Hamilton (whom he had met in Dublin). Without the poverty and tuberculosis which ensured that he died before the age of 30, only God knows what “math-marvels” he would have dispensed. His short-spanned but monumental advances enriched Imaginary Quadratic Field, Elliptic Functions, Hypergeometric Functions, etc.; where he became the eponym of Eisenstein Theorem, Eisenstein Reciprocity, Eisenstein Integer and Eisenstein Series. He was so prolific that he published over 20 treatises in 1844. And like Galois and Abel, his early death robbed this world of a superlative genius.

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