BEER, AUGUST:

By: Isidore Singer, Edgar Mels

German mathematician; born at Trier July 31, 1825; died at Bonn on the Rhine Nov. 18, 1863. Beer was educated at the technical school and gymnasium of his native town until 1845, when he went to Bonn to study mathematics and the sciences under Plücker, whose assistant he became later. In 1848 he won the prize for his essay, "De Situ Axium Opticorum in Crystallis Biaxibus," and obtained the degree of Ph.D. Two years later he was appointed lecturer at the University of Bonn. At the same time he began publishing the results of his scientific labors, writing in 1854 "Einleitung in die Höhere Optik," which obtained a wide reputation. He followed this with a series of scientific articles in Poggendorff's "Annalen." In 1855 he was appointed professor of mathematics at Bonn. Beer also wrote "Einheit in der Electrostatik," published two years after his death.

S. E. Ms.