Walter Benz

Walter Benz (May 2, 1931 Lahnstein – January 13, 2017 Ratzeburg) was a German mathematician, an expert in geometry.^[1]

Walter Benz in 1975
(photo from the Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics)

Benz studied at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and received his doctoral degree in 1954, with Robert Furch as his advisor.^[2] After a position at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, he served as a professor at Ruhr University Bochum, University of Waterloo, and University of Hamburg. Benz was honoured with the degree of a Dr. h.c.

Based on his book Vorlesungen über Geometrie der Algebren (Springer 1973), certain geometric objects are called Benz planes.

Inner product spaces over the real numbers provide the basis of a 2007 book by Benz: Classical Geometries in Modern Contexts.^[3]

See also

• List of University of Waterloo people