The Mathematical World of Walter Noll A Scientific Biography

This book is a comprehensive study of the life and mathematics of Walter Noll, who helped to create the mathematical tools of modern rational mechanics and thermodynamics. Noll is one of the brilliant mathematicians of the second part of the 20th century. His contribution is large in both the applied and pure mathematics. The book stresses particularly Noll's method of axiomatization of physical theories, his axiomatics of continuum mechanics, thermodynamics of materials, special relativity theory, his discovery of the neo-classical space-time of mechanics, his theories of inhomogeneities in simple bodies, fit regions, contact interactions, annihilators of linear differential operators, and finite-dimensional spaces. It is a must for every mathematician, physicist, engineer or graduate student as a reference and key to Noll's mathematical heritage.

would like to thank all those people in the life of Walter Noll I who helped me to write this book: Chancellor ofIndiana Univer- sity Professor Herman B. Wells, Dr. Klaus Andre, Professor Bemard D. Coleman, Stella DeVito, Dr. Peter Frankel, Professor Morton E. Gurtin, Studiendirektor i.R. Rudolf Hohensee, Faye Mark, Profes- sor Victor J. Mizel, Professor Dietrich Morgenstern, Professor Ralph Raimi, Professor Juan J. Schaffer, Professor Clifford A. Truesdell III, Professor Epifanio G. Virga, Dr. Paul Winkler and many oth- ers. I will be always indebted to Inge Lind, my teacher and friend, for a careful reading ofthe manuscript and her invaluable comments. This book would never have been written without the compas- sion and assistance of many people in Bochum and Marburg. I am especially grateful to Ursula Arras, Dieter and Karola Behm, Achim Buhl, Birgit Berger, Professor Klaus Bohmer, Ute Hagen, Irene Jo- raszik, Professor Hans-Heinrich Korle, Elke and Manfred Kuhne, Jutta Kuster, Johannes Lind, Inka Lins, Annemarie Matt, Astrid Milenz, Matthias Naher, Eckart Rosch, Manfred Schonsee, Profes- sor Werner von Seelen, Christa Seip, Heike Willig, Anita Wolf and many others.