MATHEMATICIAN

David Hilbert

1862 - 1943

Photo of David Hilbert

Icon of person David Hilbert

David Hilbert (; German: [ˈdaːvɪt ˈhɪlbɐt]; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas including invariant theory, the calculus of variations, commutative algebra, algebraic number theory, the foundations of geometry, spectral theory of operators and its application to integral equations, mathematical physics, and the foundations of mathematics (particularly proof theory). He adopted and defended Georg Cantor's set theory and transfinite numbers. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of David Hilbert has received more than 2,511,244 page views. His biography is available in 125 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 117 in 2019). David Hilbert is the 17th most popular mathematician (up from 25th in 2019), the 37th most popular biography from Russia (up from 50th in 2019) and the most popular Russian Mathematician.

Hilbert is most famous for proving that the set of all real numbers is not countable.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.5M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 76.58

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 125

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.80

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.92

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, David Hilbert ranks 17 out of 1,004Before him are Bernhard Riemann, Bertrand Russell, Fibonacci, Pierre de Fermat, Niels Henrik Abel, and Pierre-Simon Laplace. After him are Srinivasa Ramanujan, Henri Poincaré, Joseph Fourier, Hero of Alexandria, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and Luca Pacioli.

Most Popular Mathematicians in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1862, David Hilbert ranks 4Before him are Gustav Klimt, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Maeterlinck. After him are Philipp Lenard, Gerhart Hauptmann, Allvar Gullstrand, Arthur Schnitzler, O. Henry, Aristide Briand, Hilma af Klint, and Niko Pirosmani. Among people deceased in 1943, David Hilbert ranks 3Before him are Nikola Tesla, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. After him are Isoroku Yamamoto, Pieter Zeeman, Simone Weil, Karl Landsteiner, Camille Claudel, Henrik Pontoppidan, Boris III of Bulgaria, Theodor Eicke, and Sophie Scholl.

Others Born in 1862

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 1943

Go to all Rankings

In Russia

Among people born in Russia, David Hilbert ranks 37 out of 3,761Before him are Alexander III of Russia (1845), Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873), Yul Brynner (1920), Dmitri Shostakovich (1906), Valentina Tereshkova (1937), and Georgy Zhukov (1896). After him are E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776), Alexander II of Russia (1818), Konstantin Chernenko (1911), Vladimir Nabokov (1899), Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (1901), and Turhan Hatice Sultan (1627).

Among MATHEMATICIANS In Russia

Among mathematicians born in Russia, David Hilbert ranks 1After him are Georg Cantor (1845), Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850), Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792), Andrey Kolmogorov (1903), Alexander Friedmann (1888), Grigori Perelman (1966), Christian Goldbach (1690), Leonid Kantorovich (1912), Andrey Markov (1856), Aleksandr Lyapunov (1857), and Nikolay Bogolyubov (1909).