Pfaff, Johann Friedrich

Johann Friedrich Pfaff, (born December 22, 1765, Stuttgart, Württemberg [Germany]—died April 21, 1825, Halle, Saxony [Germany]), German mathematician who proposed the first general method of integrating partial differential equations of the first order.

Pfaff was professor of mathematics at the University of Helmstedt from 1788 until 1810, when he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Halle. He made notable contributions to calculus, the theory of series, and the solution of differential equations. He completed his work on the general method of partial differential equation integration in 1814–15. The term Pfaffian problem in the theory of first-order partial differential equations was originated in his honour. Among his published works are Disquisitiones analyticae (1797; “Analytic Works”) and Observationes ad Euleri institutiones calculi integralis (“Observations of Eulerian Methods of the Integral Calculus”).