Related papers: Hans Grauert (1930-2011)
Irving John ("Jack") Good (9 December 1916 - 5 April 2009) was one of my greatest heroes and influencers. On Oct. 25, 2009, I gave a twenty-three minute talk with the present title, and this article is an extended transcript of that talk.…
A short essay on the life and mathematical heritage of Coble. A substantially edited version will be part of the series of biographical memoirs of past members of the National Academy of Sciences. Version 2: minor changes. Version 3. Typo…
A small and unsystematic selection of my favorite appearances of mathematicians and mathematics in German literature. It includes classic and romantic (Lessing, Goethe, Wezel, F. Schlegel, Kleist, Novalis, Grillparzer, Heine), modern…
Interview with Hyman Bass, whose mathematical life has spanned seven decades.
This article concerns the life and work of Lucjan Emil B\"ottcher (1872-1937), a Polish mathematician. Besides biographical and bibliographical information, it contains a survey of his mathematical achievements in the theory of iteration…
Patrick Moss (1947--2024) had two distinct lives as a mathematician. The first was as a ring theorist in the late 1970s, in which he worked with Ginn and Lenagan as a student. After a long career as an inspirational mathematics teacher,…
This is a free summary of a much longer article published in german in "Forschung Frankfurt". This article presents facts concerning the works of Max Dehn and the history of Frankfurt University. E. Hellinger, R. Moufang, C. L. Siegel, A.…
A tribute to the life and work of Pal Revesz. The Hungarian mathematical community lost one of his leading members, when Pal Revesz passed away on 14 of November 2022.
The primary aim of this chapter is, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Riemann's death, to explain how the idea of {\it Riemann sum} is linked to other branches of mathematics. The materials I treat are more or less classical and…
This is about the mathematics and life of Donald Gordon Higman, 1928-2006. He did important work in representation theory of groups and algebras and in algebraic combinatorics. Charles C. Sims and Donald Higman discovered and constructed…
Schroedinger's famous quadruple of factorizations of the hypergeometric equation is archived here
The author describes some of his experiences as a mathematician cooperating with diabetes specialists.
The Einstein Archives contain a considerable collection of calculations in the form of working sheets and scratch paper, documenting Einstein's scientific preoccupations during the last three decades of his life until his death in 1955.…
Detlef D\"urr (1951-2021) was a theoretical and mathematical physicist who worked particularly on the foundations of quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, and statistical mechanics. This piece is a rather personal look back at him and his…
This paper, in French, is a celebration of Max Dehn, and an essay of describing some of his results published in the beginning of the 1910's, and their offspring. It has been written up for a winter school in Les Diablerets, March 7-12,…
This article, dedicated, with admiration to Reuben Hersh, for his forthcoming 90th birthday, argues that mathematics today is not yet a science, but that it is high time that it should become one.
This is a former PhD student's take on his teacher's scientific philosophy. I describe a set of 'principles' that I believe are conducive to good applied mathematics, and that I have learnt myself from observing Hans van Duijn in action.
The year 2017 marked the 130th anniversary of the prominent Russian mathematician Vladimir Ivanovich Smirnov. We review some aspects of his life and his mathematical accomplishments.
I describe parts of my joint work with S. Deser [March 19, 1931 - April 21, 2023] which started when I was working as a post-doc at Brandeis University in 2001. Our work was mostly, but not exclusively, on conserved charges of higher…
Wasssily Hoeffding's terminal illness and untimely death in 1991 put an end to efforts that were made to interview him for Statistical Science. An account of his scientific work is given in Fisher and Sen [The Collected Works of Wassily…