Stiefel entered the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in 1928. He received his Ph.D. in 1935 under
Heinz Hopf; his dissertation was titled "Richtungsfelder und Fernparallelismus in n-dimensionalen Mannigfaltigkeiten". Stiefel completed his
habilitation in 1942. Besides his academic pursuits, Stiefel was also active as a military officer, rising to the rank of colonel in the Swiss army during
World War II. Stiefel achieved his full professorship at
ETH Zurich in 1943, founding the
Institute for Applied Mathematics five years later. The objective of the new institute was to design and construct an electronic computer (the
Elektronische Rechenmaschine der ETH, or
ERMETH). He spent a year in the
United States commencing in August, 1951. During this time, he met Magnus Hestenes and many other scientists at the
National Bureau of Standards and these professional associations served him well during the remainder of his career at
Zurich. ==Known for==