OTTO FROSTMAN

Höör January 3, 1907 - Djursholm December 29, 1977

frostman














Brief scientific biography


In 1926 Otto Frostman entered the university of Lund, where after receiving his B.Sc. he commenced graduate studies under the guidance of Marcel Riesz, the younger of the famous Hungarian brothers Frigyes and Marcel. In 1935 he defended his thesis Potentiel d'équilibre et capacité des ensembles avec quelques applications à la théorie des functions, which was to become a classic in potential theory. He was given a docent position in Lund the same year, but these positions were time-limited and since no chair in mathematics became vacant during his years as docent he worked as a school-teacher for 10 years. In 1952 he became professor of mathematics at what was then called Stockholms Högskola, (now Stockholm University) where he remained until his retirement in 1973.

He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Science in 1952, and he then had a career in scientific boards and committees. He was a member of the Executive Committee of ICMI from 1959 to 1962 and again (as secretary of IMU) from 1971 to 1974.
He was secretary of IMU from 1966 to 1974.
He was a member of the EC for the Nobel Foundation from 1965 - 1973.

Frostman wrote several important papers on Potential Theory and Complex Analysis.



Primary literature


G. HÖssJER, O. FROSTMAN 1933, Über die Ausnahmestellen eines Blaschkeproduktes, Kungl. Fysiogr. Sällsk. Lund Förh. 3, Nr 16, 1 - 8

O. FROSTMAN 1934, Über den Kapazitätsbegriff und einen Satz von R. Nevanlinna, Kungl. Fysiogr. Sällsk. Lund Förh. 4, Nr 10, 1 - 14
O. FROSTMAN 1934, Über die defekten Werte einer meromorphen Funktion, 8 Scand. Congr. Math. 1934, Congress Reports, Lund, 392 - 396
O. FROSTMAN 1935, Potentiel d'équilibre et capacité des ensembles avec quelques applications à la théorie des functions, Doctoral thesis, Lund
O. FROSTMAN 1937, La méthode de variation de Gauss et les fonctions sous-harmoniques, C. R. Congr. internat. Math., Oslo 1936, 2, 63 (1937).
O. FROSTMAN 1937, La méthode de variation de Gauss et les fonctions sous-harmoniques, Acta Litt. Ac. Scient. 8, 149 - 159
O. FROSTMAN 1937, Sur les majorantes harmoniques d'une fonction sousharmonique, Acta Litt. Ac. Scient. 8 202 - 204
O. FROSTMAN, 1938, Sur le balayage des masses, Acta Litt. Ac. Scient. 9 43 - 51
O. FROSTMAN, 1939, Sur les fonctions surharmoniques d'ordre fractionnaire, Ark. Mat. Astron. Fys. A, 26, No.16, 1-16
O. FROSTMAN 1939, Les points irréguliers dans la théorie du potentiel et le critère de Wiener, Fysiogr. Sällsk. Lund Förh. 21, No.13, 119-129 (1939).
O. FROSTMAN 1943, Sur les produits de Blaschke, Kungl. Fysiogr. Sällsk. Lund Förh. 12, 169 - 192
O. FROSTMAN 1950, Potentiel de masses à somme algèbrique nulle, Kungl. Fysiogr. Sällsk. Lund Förh. 20, 1 - 21
O. FROSTMAN 1950a, Sur les distributions vectorielles de masses, Kungl. Fysiogr. Sällsk. Lund Förh. 20, 192 -198
O. FROSTMAN 1950b, Sur un principe du maximum, Complex analysis and its applications, Collect. Artic., Steklov Math. Inst., Moscow (1978), 574-576
O. FROSTMAN 1951, Distributions de masses normées par la métrique de Lp, (French) Kungl. Fysiogr. Sällsk. Lund Förh. 21, No.13, 119-129 (1951).
O. FROSTMAN 1958, Suites convergentes de distributions d'equilibre, Treizième congrès des mathematicians scandinaves, tenu à Helsinki 18-23 août 1957, Mercators Tryckeri, Helsinki, 86 - 89
O. FROSTMAN , 1966, Aus dem Briefwechsel von G. Mittag-Leffler, Festschr. Gedächtnisfeier K. Weierstrass, Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne, 53 -56
O. FROSTMAN, H. WALLIN 1980, Riesz Potentials on Manifolds, Potential Theory, Copenhagen 1979 (Proc. Coll., Copenhagen 1979) Lecture Notes in Mathematics 787, Springer Berlin-New York, 106 - 120



Papers on Education



O. FROSTMAN 1954-1957, Summary of a report on the mathematical instruction in Sweden for students between 16 and 21 years of age, in Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians 1954, Groningen, Noordhoff - Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing Co., 3 vols, I, 552
O. FROSTMAN 1953, A theorem by Fàry with elementary applications, (Swedish. English summary) Nordisk Mat. Tidskr. 1, 25-32, 64 (1953).
O. FROSTMAN 1956, Range of mathematical education in Swedish grammar Schools with regard to the examination-Paper, L'Enseignement mathématique, II s., II, 250-256.
O. FROSTMAN 1962, La notion de convexité dans l'enseignement élémentaire, L'Enseignement mathématique, II. Ser. 8, 158-162




Author
Sten Kaijser
Department of Mathematics
Uppsala University
sten@math.uu.se