| Order: | 8th | ||||||
| Rector of the Technical University of Munich | |||||||
| Term Start: | 1919 | ||||||
| Term End: | 1925 | ||||||
| Successor: | Jonathan Zenneck | ||||||
| Order2: | 1st | ||||||
| Title2: | Rector of the Technical University of Munich | ||||||
| Term Start2: | 1903 | ||||||
| Term End2: | 1906 | ||||||
| Predecessor2: | Position renamed | ||||||
| Successor2: | Friedrich von Thiersch | ||||||
| Order3: | 7th | ||||||
| Title3: | Director of the Technical University of Munich | ||||||
| Term Start3: | 1900 | ||||||
| Term End3: | 1903 | ||||||
| Successor3: | Position renamed | ||||||
| Nationality: | German | ||||||
| Birth Date: | 1856 12, df=yes | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria | ||||||
| Death Place: | Munich, Nazi Germany | ||||||
| Education: | Technical University of Munich | ||||||
| Module: |
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Walther Franz Anton von Dyck (6 December 1856 – 5 November 1934), born Dyck (pronounced as /de/[1]) and later ennobled, was a German mathematician. He is credited with being the first to define a mathematical group, in the modern sense in . He laid the foundations of combinatorial group theory, being the first to systematically study a group by generators and relations.
Von Dyck was a student of Felix Klein and served as chairman of the commission publishing Klein's encyclopedia. Von Dyck was also the editor of Kepler's works. He promoted technological education as rector of the Technische Hochschule of Munich.[2] He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1908 at Rome.[3]
Von Dyck is the son of the Bavarian painter Hermann Dyck.
The Dyck language in formal language theory is named after him,[4] as are Dyck's theorem and Dyck's surface in the theory of surfaces, together with the von Dyck groups, the Dyck tessellations, Dyck paths, and the Dyck graph.