Koch

Koch is a German surname meaning "cook" and is derived from the occupation. It is common in Germany, Austria, and other countries with German-speaking communities, and it has been adopted in various cultures.

Notable people with the surname include Robert Koch (1843–1910), a German physician and microbiologist who identified the bacteria causing tuberculosis and cholera and formulated Koch's postulates for linking pathogens to disease. The name is also associated with the American chemical engineer Fred C. Koch (1900–1967), founder of Koch Industries, and his sons Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, prominent business figures in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

In mathematics, the Koch curve, introduced by Helge von Koch in 1904, is a classic fractal built by iteratively replacing line segments with a triangular bump. The Koch snowflake extends this construction from a single equilateral triangle to a closed fractal curve, notable for its infinite perimeter and finite area.

Beyond individuals, the surname Koch appears in science, industry, and culture, reflecting its long-standing Germanic origins and its spread through multilingual contexts.