F. W. Levi

Friedrich Wilhelm Daniel Levi (February 6, 1888 – January 1, 1966) was a German mathematician known for his work in abstract algebra, especially torsion-free abelian groups. He also worked in geometry, topology, set theory, and analysis.

Levi was born to Georg Levi and Emma Blum in Mulhouse in Alsace-Lorraine, then part of the German Empire. He received his Ph.D. in 1911 under Heinrich Martin Weber at the University of Strasbourg.

Levi served his mandatory military service in the German Army in 1906–1907, and was called up again serving in the artillery during World War I, 1914–18. Awarded the Iron Cross, he was discharged as a lieutenant. In 1917, he married Barbara Fitting, with whom he eventually had three children (Paul Levi, Charlotte, and Suzanne). He taught at the University of Leipzig between 1920 and 1935, when the Nazi government fired him because of his Jewish ancestry. Friedrich and Barbara moved to Calcutta, India.

In 1935 he accepted an offer as head of the Mathematics Department at the University of Calcutta. He introduced the Levi graph in 1940 at a series of lectures on finite geometry. He contributed to the understanding of combinatorics on words when he articulated the Levi lemma in an article for the Calcutta Mathematical Society. In 1948, Levi became professor of mathematics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India.

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