16th April, 1885 born in Benešov near Prague
| 1904 | passed the living examination at the Academic Grammar School in Prague | |
| 1904 | appointed an Active Member of the Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists | |
| 1904 - 07 | was studying at the Philosophical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague | |
| 1907 - 08 | was studying at Sorbonna in Paris | |
| 1908 | passed the "teacher examination" | |
| 1909 | appointed an assistant lecturer; Faculty of Philosophy of the Charles University | |
| 1909 | achieved the degree "Doctor of Philosophy" | |
| 1912 | appointed a privat associate professor; Faculty of Philosophy of the Charles University | |
| 1913 | appointed an assistant lecturer; Czech Technical University | |
| 1913 | appointed a privat associate professor; Czech Technical University | |
| 1918 | got married | |
| 1920 | declared an extraordinary professor at the Czech Technical University | |
| 1922 | appointed an extraordinary member of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences | |
| 1923 | declared an ordinary professor at the Czech Technical University | |
| 1924 | appointed an extraordinary member of the Bohemian Academy of Sciences and Arts | |
| 1934 - 35 | was a dean of the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering | |
| 1948 | 1948 retired |
Childhood and Grammar School Education
In October 1904 Karel Rychlík started to study mathematics and physics at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. He was influenced above all by professor Karel Petr. In the school year 1907/08 Rychlík was studying at Faculté des Sciences in Paris. The most of all he was interested in lectures of Jacques Hadamard (winter semester) and Émile Picard (summer semester) named Analyse supérieure. In addition to it Rychlík listened lectures of Darboux, Goursat, Raffy, Painlavé and Marie Curie. Moreover he was attending lectures of Georges Humbert at Collége de France, devoted to the number theory all the year. During his stay in Paris Rychlík was working on his dissertation. On December 16, 1908 Rychlík passed the so-called "teacher examination". At the end of the year 1908 he also handed in his dissertation. Its most interesting part had been already published in Časopis pro pěstování mathematiky a fysiky; the paper was entitled O grupě řádu 360 (On the Group of the Rang of 360) [R3]. The review was written by Karel Petr and signed also by Jan Sobotka. The dissertation review was dated December 23, 1908 and Rychlík's work was appreciate as excellent. On March of the following year Rychlík passed the two hours lasting "great go" of mathematics and mathematical physic and one hour lasting "great go" of philosophy. On March 30, 1908 Rychlík was conferred the degree Doctor of Philosophy on the graduation ceremony.
The Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists
Karel Rychlík became an active member of the Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists (further only the Union) already in 1904. On December 6, 1905 Rychlík was elected a member of the committee for the next two years and became the accountant (together with Matěj Otta). In 1910 - 1921 Rychlík was an editor of "Problems" (Úlohy) published in the magazine Časopis pro pěstování mathematiky a fysiky. By the beginning of the World War II he was the member of the committee of the Union (1905 - 1907 the accountant, 1908/09 the archivist, 1909 - 1915 and 1930 - 1933 the librarian; in the mean time "without a special duty"). In 1920 - 1928 Rychlík was the delegate of the committee in the mathematical section of the scientific board; as its jobster he was organizing lectures in the Union. In 1932 - 1941 he was the member of the mathematical section of the scientific board of Časopis. In fact the whole his life Rychlik lectured in the Union. His lectures were very close related to his scientific research.
At the Charles University in Prague
In 1909 Karel Rychlík began helping out in the mathematical seminary of the Philosophical faculty as an unpaid assistant (appointed January 21, 1909). On December 1, 1909 he was appointed a paid assistant of the mathematical seminary with the annual wage of 1400 crown. He had been discharged this position until the end of June 1913, when he started his work at the Czech Technical University in Prague. On November 17, 1910 Rychlík presented an application for conferment of veniae docendi of mathematics at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Czech university. As a inception treatise he presented the work Příspěvek k theorii forem (A Contribution to the Form Theory) [R4], which was published the same year. Five days later an inception committee was settled; its members were K. Petr - reporter, F. Koláček and J. Sobotka. On June 30, 1911 Rychlík added to his inception treatise the paper Příspěvek k theorii forem II (A Contribution to the Form Theory II) [R7] published in the first issue of the magazine Rozpravy II. Třídy České akademie věd a umění in 1911. On October 26, 1911 Karel Petr finished the favourable inception rewiew including his evaluation of papers [R1], [R2], [R3], [R4] and [R7]. Then Rychlík passed the inception colloquium (November 16, 1911) and read the lecture on trial named Vývoj pojmu dělitelnosti (The Evolution of the Concept of Divisibility; at the session of the board of professors on January 18, 1912) - the same day the board of professors decided with one accord on Rychlík's appointment an associate professor. Rychlík was officially appointed by the Ministry of Culture and Education on March 15, 1912.
In the winter semester 1912/13 Rychlík read his first university lecture named Theory of Algebraic Fields, in the summer semester he lectured on Theory of Algebraic Functions. By the school year 1924/25 he had one or two university lectures a semester. He went on lecturing at the university by 1938, but with some breaks (they took altogether 8 years).
Rychlík's university lectures were devoted to different parts of modern algebra and number theory, which were the very topic of his scientific research. Unfortunately, he never became a proffesor at the Charles University. In 1919 the board of professors decided on his appointment an extraordinary professor (together with another mathematician Bohumil Hostinský), but their suggestion remained lying down in the Ministry of Culture and Education and was not realized (the financial situation of the school system was not very good). In the end Rychlík became a professor at the Czech Technical University (1920; Hostinský took a job at the Masaryk University in Brno).
At the Czech Technical University in Prague
On July 1, 1913 Karel Rychlík was appointed an assistent of the IIIrd department of mathematics at the Czech Technical University in Prague with the annual wage of 2000 crown. At the same time he applied for the transfer of his inception to the technical university. His inception was officially certified on September 27, 1913. In October 1914 Rychlík undertook the duties of F. Velísek, who was enlisted and died in the war. He began read base lectures alternately for students of the first and of the second year of study, the lecture on the probability theory and the lecture Introduction to Vector Analyse. On November 27, 1920 Rychlík was finally appointed an extraordinary professor of the Czech Technical University in Prague with the annual wage of 19 512 crown.
Now we can say that was pitty Rychlík remained only a privat associate professor at the Charles University. The main subject of his research was algebra and the number theory. It was possible, even necessary, to read such topics at the Charles University. Rychlík was the first person who introduced methods and concepts of the modern abstract algebra into our country -- by means of published treatises as well as his university lectures. But Rychlik spent the most of the time at the Czech Technical University where he had to lecture above all on analysis, analytical geometry and probability theory. Nevertheless, he approached to his work seriously there. He was a member of many committees, such as inception committees, organisation committee etc. or, for example, a committee for writing a congratulatory letter to a retired professor ... .
On January 11, 1922 Karel Rychlík was elected an extraordinary member of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences. On March 5, 1924 a Bolzano committee under this society was established. The intention of the committee was to organize and subsequently publish Bolzano's manuscripts deposited in the Vienna National Library. Rychlík was the member of the Bolzano committee since its establishment and before the Warld War II he prepared for publishing two manuscripts: Functionenlehre [R34] and Zahlentheorie [R35]. For further information on Rychlík's researches concerning Bernard Bolzano see the preliminary version of Karel Rychlík and Bernard Bolzano.
On May 23, 1924 Karel Rychlík was elected an extraordinary member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts. On May 19, 1925 he was appointed a member of the Czechoslovak National Research Council under the Academy.
1914 Rychlík participated at the 5th Congress of Czech Naturalists and Physicians in Prague. He read a contribution named A Remark on Hensel's Theory of Algebraic numbers. The abstract was published in the proceedings as [R11].
1920 The International Congress of Mathematicians in Strassburk.
1928 The 6th Congress of Czechoslovak Naturalists, Physicians and Engineers in Prague.
1929 The International Congress of Mathematicians in Bologna. Rychlík read the lecture La Théorie des Fonctions de Bolzano, which was published in proceedings as [R28].
1929 The Congress of Mathematicians of Slovanian Countries in Warsava. Rychlík read the lecture Uber die Andwendung die Methode von Sochocki , which was published in proceedings as [R33].
1934 The Second Congress of Mathematicians of Slovanian Countries in Prague. Rychlík was the member of the organize committee and he was the chairman of the 1st section named Fundamentals and Philosophy of Mathematics (together with V. Hlavaty) and of the 2nd section named Arithmetic and Algebra (together with V. Korinek), where he also read the lecture Determinants in Fields of Arbitrary Characteristic , which was published in Casopis as [R42].