Am Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1952–1954

Zusammenfassung

Die Bedeutung der drei Aufenthalte in Princeton, insbesondere des ersten, für Hirzebruch selbst, für seine Familie, für die Entwicklung der Mathematik in Deutschland und darüber hinaus, ist kaum zu überschätzen. Über den ersten Aufenthalt Hirzebruchs in Princeton schreiben Atiyah und Zagier einleitend und gleichzeitig zusammenfassend:

In 1952 came the development that was not only to be a turning point in Fritz’s mathematical career, but, as it transpired, to have a major influence on the later development of mathematics in Germany and in Europe: he was invited for two years to the IAS in Princeton, where he came into contact with many of the most brilliant mathematicians and most exciting new ideas of the period, and where he made the two discoveries with which his name is most strongly associated, the Signature Theorem and the Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch Theorem.