Zorn was born in
Krefeld,
Germany. He attended the
University of Hamburg. He received his
PhD in April 1930 for a thesis on
alternative algebras. He published his findings in
Abhandlungen aus dem Mathematischen Seminar der Universität Hamburg. Zorn showed that
split-octonions could be represented by a mixed-style of matrices called
Zorn's vector-matrix algebra. Max Zorn was appointed to an assistant position at the
University of Halle. However, he did not have the opportunity to work there for long as he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 because of policies enacted by the
Nazis. According to grandson Eric, "[Max] spoke with a raspy, airy voice most of his life. Few people knew why, because he only told the story after significant prodding, but he talked that way because pro-Hitler thugs who objected to his politics had battered his throat in a 1933 street fight." Zorn immigrated to the United States and was appointed a
Sterling Fellow at
Yale University. While at Yale, Zorn wrote his paper "A Remark on Method in Transfinite Algebra" that stated his Maximum Principle, later called
Zorn's lemma. It requires a set that contains the union of any
chain of
subsets to have one chain not contained in any other, called the
maximal element. He illustrated the principle with applications in ring theory and field extensions. Zorn's lemma is an alternative expression of the
axiom of choice, and thus a subject of interest in
axiomatic set theory. In 1936 he moved to
UCLA and remained until 1946. While at UCLA Zorn revisited his study of alternative rings and proved the existence of the
nilradical of certain
alternative rings. According to
Angus E. Taylor, Max was his most stimulating colleague at UCLA. In 1946 Zorn became a professor at
Indiana University, where he taught until retiring in 1971. He was thesis advisor for
Israel Nathan Herstein. Zorn died in
Bloomington, Indiana, in March 1993, of congestive heart failure. ==Family==