Florian Cajori

Florian Cajori (1859-1930), American mathematician, known for his works on the history of mathematics. Cajori was born in Saint Aignan, near Thusis, Switzerland. At the age of 16 he went to the United States, where he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating with a B.S. degree in 1883 and an M.S. degree in 1886. He also did graduate work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1884 to 1885. Cajori was an assistant professor of applied mathematics at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1885 to 1887 and then full professor from 1887 to 1888. He was then a professor of physics at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from 1889 to 1898 and a professor of mathematics there from 1898 to 1918. He was also the dean of the engineering department from 1903 to 1918. Continuing his own research during his time at Colorado College, Cajori earned a Ph.D. degree from Tulane University in 1894. Cajori's outstanding reputation in the field of mathematics secured him an appointment in 1918 as professor of the history of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he remained until his death in 1930. Cajori’s works on the history of mathematics include The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), A History of Mathematics (1894), and A History of Mathematical Notations (1928-1929). He also wrote biographies of William Oughtred (1916) and Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler (1929), two prominent mathematicians.