Moses Schönfinkel

Moses Ilyich Schönfinkel (born 29 September 1888, died 1942) was a Russian logician and mathematician. He is primarily recognized for his pioneering work in combinatory logic, a formal system that avoids the use of bound variables. Schönfinkel was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (present-day Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. He pursued his studies in mathematics at Novorossiysk University in Odessa, where he was influenced by Samuil Osipovich Shatunovskii. From 1914 to 1924, Schönfinkel was associated with David Hilbert's group at the University of Göttingen in Germany. During this period, on 7 December 1920, he delivered a lecture titled "Elements of Logic," in which he outlined the fundamental concepts of combinatory logic. This work was later published by Heinrich Behmann. Another significant contribution was his 1928 paper on the decision problem, co-authored with Paul Bernays. After leaving Göttingen, Schönfinkel returned to Moscow. Reports from 1927 indicate he had become mentally ill and was residing in a sanatorium. His later years were marked by hardship and poverty. He died in Moscow in 1942, and tragically, his personal papers were reportedly burned by neighbors for fuel.