A brief history of the professors at the department of Mathematics

When KTH received university status as an institute of technology in 1879 the mathematical education was led by two professors, Emil Fogelmarck and Hjalmar Holmgren. The latter was also responsible for the teaching of mechanics. These two men were appointed during a time when the school was still called an "Engineering Institute" and the theoretical part of the curriculum was somewhat controversial. (This is described by Torsten Althin in his interesting historical work "KTH 1912-1962.")

Mathematics, however, soon got a fairly unchallenged position at KTH, probably largely influenced by Anders Lindstedt who was professor of mathematics and theoretical mechanics in 1886-1909 and who also was KTH's president from 1902 to 1909.

Later development of mathematics at KTH is reflected partly in the following list of professors 1857-1994.

It is noteworthy that the number of professors of mathematical subjects rose by two to three in 1912 and rose further to six in the expansion era of KTH (after 1950).

It may also be noted that the previous broad topics for professorships, such as "Mathematics and Mechanics", were recently replaced with somewhat more specialized topics, such as professorships in mathematical statistics and optimization theory and systems theory. Also new chairs in the mechanical and physical fields have been appointed in the same tradition. Although, these no longer belong to the actual department of mathematics.

As an addendum to the list of professors it should perhaps be mentioned that Lennart Carleson after his formal retirement in 1994, was affiliated to the department by a senior professorship funded by the Göran Gustafsson Foundation.