Richard Brauer

German-American mathematician who worked mainly in abstract algebra, but made important contributions to number theory. He was the founder of modular representation theory.

Future mathematician Alfred Brauer was Richard's brother and seven years older. They were born to a Jewish family. Both were interested in science and mathematics, but Alfred was injured in combat in World War I. As a boy, Richard dreamt of becoming an inventor. Except for the summer of 1920 when he studied at University of Freiburg, he studied in Berlin, being awarded his PhD on 16 March 1926.

Brauer married Ilse Karger on 17 September 1925. Their sons George Ulrich (born 1927) and Fred Gunther (born 1932) also became mathematicians.

When the Nazi Party took over in 1933, the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars took action to help Brauer and other Jewish scientists. Brauer was offered an assistant professorship at University of Kentucky. Brauer accepted the offer, and by the end of 1933 he was in Lexington, Kentucky, teaching in English. Ilse followed the next year with George and Fred; brother Alfred made it to the United States in 1939, but their sister Alice was killed in the Holocaust.

In 1970, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. Richard Brauer died on 17 April 1977 at age 76 in Belmont, Massachusetts.