IssaiSchur(January10,1875–January10,1941)wasamathematicianwhoworkedinGermanyformostofhislife.HestudiedatBerlin.Heobtainedhisdoctoratein1901,becamelecturerin1903and,afterastayatBonn,professorin1919.
HeconsideredhimselfGermanratherthanJewish,eventhoughhehadbeenbornintheRussianEmpireinwhatisnowBelarus,andbroughtuppartlyinLatvia.ForthisreasonhedeclinedinvitationstoleaveGermanyfortheUnitedStatesandBritainin1934.Neverthelesshewasdismissedfromhischairin1935and,attheinstigationofLudwigBieberbach(whohadpreviouslysympathisedwithSchurregardinghistreatmentatthehandsoftheNazis),hewasforcedtoresignfromthePrussianAcademyin1938.SchureventuallyemigratedtoPalestinein1939,andlivedhisfinalyearsinpoverty.HediedinTelAvivonhis66thbirthday.
AsastudentofFrobenius,heworkedongrouprepresentations(thesubjectwithwhichheismostcloselyassociated),butalsoincombinatoricsandnumbertheoryandeventheoreticalphysics.HeisperhapsbestknowntodayforhisresultontheexistenceoftheSchurdecompositionandforhisworkongrouprepresentations(Schur'slemma).
Schurhadanumberofstudents,includingRichardBrauer,B.H.Neumann,HeinzPrüfer,andRichardRado.Hislectureswereverypopularwithstudents.[1]HewaselectedtotheAcademyofSciencesoftheUSSRasaforeigncorrespondingmemberin1929.
SchurpublishedunderthenameofbothI.Schur,andJ.Schur,thelatterespeciallyinJournalfürdiereineundangewandteMathematik.Thishasledtosomeconfusion.