Richard Dedekind (1831-1916)

German mathematician who proposed an axiomatic definition of the set of integers as well as an explicit construction of real numbers based on rational numbers. Dedekind introduced the notation \(\mathbb{N}\) in 1888 to refer to the set of non-zero natural numbers. Today, this set is denoted by \(\mathbb{N}\)*. Dedekind also proposed the use of the symbol \(\mathbb{R}\) to refer to the set of real numbers and the use of the symbol \(\mathbb{Z}\) to refer to the set of integers.