Who is Abbe, Ernst Carl

Abbe, Ernst Carl (1840-1905; b. Eisenach, Germany; d. Jena, Germany) German mathematician and physicist. His father was a book printer and factory worker and his childhood was one of privation. Abbe studied at U Jena and U Gottingen, receiving his PhD in 1861. In 1863 he was appointed to a lectureship at Jena on the basis of a dissertation that, in effect, derived the *chi-squared distribution. Following an approach from Carl Zeiss, most of his subsequent work was concerned with optics and astronomy. Alunar crater is named after him, also a minor planet, and several schools in Germany.