Gösta Mittag-Leffler

Magnus Gustaf Gösta Mittag-Leffler (1846 to 1927) was a Swedish mathematician born in Stockholm whose work centred on the theory of functions, today called complex analysis. After studying in Paris, Berlin and Göttingen he became professor of mathematics at the University of Helsinki in 1877, and in 1881 the first professor of mathematics at the newly founded University College of Stockholm, later Stockholm University. He founded the mathematical periodical Acta Mathematica and edited it for 40 years. He was a firm advocate of women in science, helped Sofia Kovalevskaya become a full professor in Stockholm, and urged the Nobel committee to recognise Marie Curie as an equal contributor. After the First World War he gave his Djursholm estate and mathematical library to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the foundation of the Mittag-Leffler Institute.