Related papers: Errico Presutti 1942-2024
The prominent Russian mathematician Igor Rostislavovich Shafarevich passed away on February 19, 2017. In this article we supply his biography, discuss his many important contributions to number theory, algebra and algebraic geometry, and…
Theoretical physics suffered a major loss with the death of my dear friend Jan Zaanen on January 18. This note is my remembrance of him.
A brief description and results of A.M. Mathai's research programme on statistics and probability, initiated in the 1970s, and its relation to physics is given.
The contributions of Emmy Noether to particle physics fall into two categories. One is given under the rubric of Noether's theorem, and the other may be described as her important contributions to modern mathematics. These are discussed…
Ettore Majorana proposed an important improvement to the Thomas-Fermi statistical model for atoms, with a communication at the general meeting of the Italian Physical Society, held in Rome, on December 29th, 1928, regularly published on…
We focus here on the work of the italian physicist Ettore Majorana, and more particularly on his 1937 article on the symmetrical theory of the electron and the positron, probably one of the most important theory for contemporary thought. We…
I first met Louis Nirenberg in person in 1972 when I became a Courant Instructor. He was already a celebrated mathematician and a suave sophisticated New Yorker, even though he was born in Hamilton, Canada and grew up in Montreal. In this…
Free translation of the original abstract in Spanish: Some of the most relevant milestones due to, or instigated by, mathematicians concerning the creation, development and advances of Cosmology as a scientific discipline are presented and…
Remarks at the Irving Kaplansky Memorial about a collaboration during the early period of the renewal of contacts between mathematicians and theoretical physicists.
This is an English translation of the obituary notice by Beno Eckmann, appearing in Elemente der Mathematik 47.3 (1992) 118--122 (in German).
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.
We survey briefly the life and work of P. L. Chebyshev, and his ongoing influence. We discuss his contributions to probability, number theory and mechanics, his pupils and mathematical descendants, and his role as the founding father of…
Galileo's support to the Copernican theory was decisive for the revolutionary astronomical discoveries he achieved in 1610. We trace the origins of Galileo's conversion to the Copernican theory, discussing in particular the "Dialogo de…
Jonathan M. Borwein (1951-2016) was a prolific mathematician whose career spanned several countries (UK, Canada, USA, Australia) and whose many interests included analysis, optimisation, number theory, special functions, experimental…
This note is based upon a talk given at a celebration in Austin Texas of the achievements of J. Willard Gibbs. J. Willard Gibbs, the younger, was the first American physical sciences theorist. He was one of the inventors of statistical…
This paper discusses Einstein's methodology. 1. Einstein characterized his work as a theory of principle and reasoned that beyond kinematics, the 1905 heuristic relativity principle could offer new connections between non-kinematical…
William Kruskal (Bill) was a distinguished statistician who spent virtually his entire professional career at the University of Chicago, and who had a lasting impact on the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and on the field of statistics…
Contributed paper to the Conference "Francesco's Legacy: Star Formation in Space and Time", in memory of Francesco Palla (1954-2016), held in Florence, June 5-9, 2017
Leo Breiman was a highly creative, influential researcher with a down-to-earth personal style and an insistence on working on important real world problems and producing useful solutions. This paper is a short review of Breiman's extensive…
Prosopography is usually used to globally describe a large population of ordinary subjects. It is thus opposed to biography, as a genre devoted to exceptional individuals. I show in this article how to use prosopography to study a single…