A popular German mathematician, Georg Cantor is famous for discovering and building a

hierarchy of infinite sets according to their cardinal numbers. He is also known for inventing the
Cantor set, which is now, a fundamental theory in mathematics. Although, Cantors views were
opposed by many of his contemporaries, but, he refused to bow down to their criticism and
continued his research. Apart from the cardinal numbers, Georg Cantor is also credited for
having furthered the study of trigonometry and transfinite numbers. He also established the
importance of one-to-one correspondence in set theory. He was awarded the Sylvester Medal,
which is the most prestigious award in mathematics. Cantor was also interested in music and
arts. It is said that Cantor was a spiritual personality and believed that God communicated some
of his mathematical discoveries to him. Read on to know more about this great personality.
Early Life & Childhood
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor was born on March 3, 1845 in Saint Petersburg to
Georg Waldemar Cantor and Maria Anna Bohm. Cantor was brought up as a staunch Protestant
and inherited the love for the arts from his parents . He is said to have been an outstanding
violinist himself. Cantor's father was German and his mother was Russian and a Roman
Catholic. Cantor had a private tutor from a very young age and attended primary school in St.
Petersburg. In 1856, when Cantor was eleven years old, his family moved to Germany, although
Cantor was never at ease in this country.
Cantors fathers health began to deteriorate that is why the family moved to Frankfurt for
warmer climates. Cantor studied at the Gymnasium here and graduated with an outstanding
report in 1860. His tutors began to notice that he was brilliant in mathematics, particularly in
trigonometry. After the Gymnasium, he entered the Polytechnique of Zurich in 1862, where he
studied mathematics. With his parents approval, he studied there for a couple of years, till his
study was cut short due to his fathers death in 1863. After the death of his father, Cantor moved
to the University of Berlin where he befriended Hermann Schwarz and attended lectures by
Kronecker, Weierstrass and Kummer. He also studied at the University of Gottingen over
summer and completed his first dissertation on the number theory named De aequationibus
secondi gradus indeterminatis in 1867. He received his doctorate in mathematics in 1867.
Career
At the beginning of his career, Cantor was actively involved with mathematical guilds and
societies. He became the President of the society in 1865 and in 1868; he joined the Schellbach
Seminar for mathematicians. He was appointed at the University of Halle in 1869, and continued

working on separate dissertations on the number theory and analysis. It was here Cantor decided
to probe further into the subject of trigonometry and began pondering over the uniqueness of the
representation of a function of the trigonometric series, introduced to him by a senior, called
Heine. By 1870, Cantor solved the problem, proving the uniqueness of the representation, much
to Heines astonishment. In 1873, Cantor proved that rational numbers were countable and could
be placed in correspondence to the natural numbers. By the end of 1873, Cantor had proved that
real and algebraic numbers were also countable. He was promoted to Extraordinary Professor in
1872 and was appointed as a full professor in 1879. He was pleased with his achievement but he
wanted the chair at a more prestigious university.
In 1882, Cantor began an important correspondence with Gosta Mittag-Leffler and soon began to
publish his works in Lefflers journal, Acta Mathematica. Cantors works were being
continuously ridiculed and oppressed by Cantors contemporary, Kronecker. Although, Cantor
continued publishing, he suffered a mental breakdown in 1884. He recovered soon enough and
decided to lecture in philosophy. Soon, he began studying Elizabethan literature. In 1890, Cantor
also founded the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, where he first published his diagonal
argument for the public, and reconciled with Kronecker. However, his ties with Kronecker never
stabilized and this persisted through the remainder of Cantors life.
Personal Life
In 1874, Cantor married Vally Guttman. They had six children. It is said that Cantor did not have
sufficient funds to support his family, despite being a reputed mathematician. During his free
time, he loved to play the violin and buried himself in arts and literature. He was awarded with
the Sylvester medal for his works in Mathematics. Cantor retired from work in 1913. He was
mentally ill, was victim to continuous breakdowns, and was finally admitted to a sanatorium
towards the end of his life.
Death And Legacy
Georg Cantor died on January 6, 1918 in Halle, after a prolonged mental illness. There were
many publications on Cantor such as Men of Mathematics and the history of mathematics. He
laid the foundation for Modern Mathematics and most of his works have survived to date.
Major Works
Infinite sets
Uncountable sets
Cantor set
Cardinals and Ordinals
The Continuum hypothesis
Number theory and function theories

Infinitesimals
Convergent series
Transcendental numbers
Diagonal argument
CantorBernstein-Schroeder
theorem
Continuum hypothesis

Publications
On a Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers.
Foundations of a General Theory of Aggregates.
Mathematische Annalen.
Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre.
De aequationibus secondi gradus indeterminatis.