Anders Wiman
Anders Wiman (1865–1959) was a Swedish mathematician known for his work in algebraic geometry, group theory, and the theory of entire functions.
He was born in Hammarlöv, Sweden, into a well-off farming family and studied at Lund University, where he earned his doctorate in 1892 under Carl Fabian Björling. His thesis focused on classifying certain algebraic surfaces. Wiman became a professor at Lund and later moved to Uppsala University, where he taught and researched algebra, number theory, and functions. He returned to Lund in his later years and died there in 1959.
Wiman’s main contributions were in algebraic geometry and how groups act on geometric objects. He studied all finite groups that can appear as symmetries of certain plane transformations and helped classify many related objects. He also worked on how groups relate to equations and geometry, and wrote about finite groups for Klein’s encyclopedia. In function theory, he made foundational advances in the study of entire functions and co-developed the Wiman–Valiron theory with Georges Valiron (in 1914–1916). He proved several important results now known as Wiman’s theorem and introduced ideas such as the Wiman sextic curve, the Wiman inequality, and the Wiman bound. His work on the zeros of derivatives of entire functions influenced later theories, including conjectures later called the Pólya–Wiman conjecture. Notable students of his at Uppsala included Arne Beurling and Fritz Carlson.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:10 (CET).