Hermann Minkowski

Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909) was a German/Jewish mathematician who developed the mathematical foundation for a space-time continuum in the theory of relativity.

By 1907, Minkowski observed that the work of Lorentz and Henri Poincaré on special relativity could be better described in a non-euclidean space. Minkowski considered that space and time, previously thought to be independent, were actually coupled together in a four-dimensional "space-time continuum." Minkowski also developed a four-dimensional treatment of electrodynamics. His major papers were Raum und Zeit (1907) and Zwei Abhand lungen über die Grundgleichungen der Elektrodynamik (1909).

Minkowski died prematurely of a ruptured appendix before Albert Einstein built on his work.