Gotthold Eisenstein

Ferdinand Gotthold Max Eisenstein (1823 to 1852) was a German mathematician born in Berlin who made significant contributions to number theory and analysis. He showed exceptional mathematical talent from a young age, had mastered the school curriculum by fifteen, attended lectures by Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet at the University of Berlin and turned to research after meeting William Rowan Hamilton in Dublin in 1843. With the patronage of Alexander von Humboldt he published widely in Crelle's Journal, including two proofs of the law of quartic reciprocity and results on cubic and quartic reciprocity. He habilitated at the University of Berlin in 1847, was briefly imprisoned in 1848 for his revolutionary activities and died of tuberculosis at twenty nine. Eisenstein's criterion, Eisenstein integers and Eisenstein series carry his name.