Garrett Birkhoff (January 19, 1911, Princeton, New Jersey, USA – November 22, 1996, Water Mill, New York, USA) was an American mathematician. Events 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy. Year 1911 ( MCMXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year See also Princeton Township New Jersey, Borough of Princeton New Jersey Princeton Borough New Jersey Princeton Township New Jersey this The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Events 498 - Kofi Aseidu- After the death of Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) This article is about a type of structure For other locational uses see Milldam. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics.
The son of the mathematician George David Birkhoff, Garrett began the Harvard University BA course in 1928 after less than seven years of prior formal education. George David Birkhoff ( 21 March 1884, Overisel Michigan - 12 November 1944, Cambridge Massachusetts) was an American Upon completing his Harvard BA in 1932, he went to Cambridge University in England to study mathematical physics but switched to studying abstract algebra under Philip Hall. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Mathematical physics is the scientific discipline concerned with the interface of Mathematics and Physics. Abstract algebra is the subject area of Mathematics that studies Algebraic structures such as groups, rings, fields, modules Philip Hall ( 11 April 1904, Hampstead, London, England – 30 December 1982, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire While visiting the University of Munich, he met Carathéodory who pointed him towards two important texts, Van der Waerden on abstract algebra and Speiser on group theory. The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München also known as LMU, is a University in Munich and with more Constantin Carathéodory (or Constantine Karatheodoris ( Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Καραθεοδωρή ( September 13, 1873 &ndash February Bartel Leendert van der Waerden ( February 2 1903, Amsterdam, Netherlands – January 12 1996, Zürich, Abstract algebra is the subject area of Mathematics that studies Algebraic structures such as groups, rings, fields, modules Group theory is a mathematical discipline the part of Abstract algebra that studies the Algebraic structures known as groups.
Birkhoff held no Ph. D. , a qualification British higher education did not emphasize at that time, and did not even bother obtaining an MA. Nevertheless, after being a member of Harvard's Society of Fellows,1933-36, he spent the rest of his career teaching at Harvard. The Harvard Society of Fellows is a collection of luminaries selected by Harvard University to be given special honors upon whom distinctive academic and intellectual opportunities From these facts can be inferred the number and quality of Birkhoff's papers published by his 25th year.
During the 1930s, Birkhoff, along with his Harvard colleagues Marshall Stone and Saunders MacLane, substantially advanced American teaching and research in abstract algebra. Marshall Harvey Stone ( April 8, 1903, New York City – January 9, 1989, Madras India) was an American mathematician Saunders Mac Lane ( 4 August 1909, Taftville, Connecticut – 14 April 2005, San Francisco) was an American Abstract algebra is the subject area of Mathematics that studies Algebraic structures such as groups, rings, fields, modules In 1941 he and MacLane published A Survey of Modern Algebra, the second undergraduate textbook in English on the subject (Cyrus Colton MacDuffee's An Introduction to Abstract Algebra was published in 1940). Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. MacLane and Birkhoff's Algebra (1967) is a more advanced text on abstract algebra. Abstract algebra is the subject area of Mathematics that studies Algebraic structures such as groups, rings, fields, modules A number of papers he wrote in the 1930s, culminating in his monograph, Lattice Theory (1940; the third edition remains in print), turned lattice theory into a major branch of abstract algebra. In Mathematics, a lattice is a Partially ordered set (also called a poset) in which every pair of elements has a unique Supremum (the elements' Abstract algebra is the subject area of Mathematics that studies Algebraic structures such as groups, rings, fields, modules His 1935 paper, "On the Structure of Abstract Algebras" founded a new branch of mathematics, universal algebra. Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Universal algebra (sometimes called general algebra) is the field of Mathematics that studies Algebraic structures themselves not examples ("models" Birkhoff's approach to this subject owed little to Alfred North Whitehead's 1898 monograph bearing the same name. Alfred North Whitehead, OM ( February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England &ndash December 30 1947,
During and after World War II, Birkhoff's interests gravitated towards what he called "engineering" mathematics. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including During the war, he worked on radar aiming and ballistics. This weapons-related work culminated in his texts on fluid dynamics, Hydrodynamics (1950) and Jets, Wakes and Cavities (1957). Birkhoff, a friend of John von Neumann, took a close interest in the rise of the electronic computer. His research and consulting work (notably for General Motors) began to employ computational methods, such as numerical linear algebra and the representation of smooth curves via cubic splines. General Motors Corporation ( GM) ( is a multinational automobile manufacturer founded in 1908 and headquartered in the United States. In the mathematical field of Numerical analysis, a spline is a special function defined Piecewise by Polynomials In interpolating
Birkhoff published more than 200 papers and supervised more than 50 Ph. Ds. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS is a corporation in the United States whose members serve Pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning
Selected books
- 1967 (1940). Lattice Theory, 3rd ed. American Mathematical Society.
- 1997 (1941) (with Saunders Mac Lane). Saunders Mac Lane ( 4 August 1909, Taftville, Connecticut – 14 April 2005, San Francisco) was an American A Survey of Modern Algebra. A K Peters. ISBN 1-56881-068-7
- 1978 (1950). Hydrodynamics: A study in logic, fact, and similitude . Greenwood Press.
- 1957 (with E. Zarantello). Jets, Wakes, and Cavities. Academic Press.
- 1989 (1962) (with Gian-Carlo Rota). Gian-Carlo Rota ( April 27, 1932 &ndash April 18, 1999, known as Juan Carlos Rota Ordinary Differential Equations. John Wiley.
- 1999 (1967) (with Saunders Mac Lane). Saunders Mac Lane ( 4 August 1909, Taftville, Connecticut – 14 April 2005, San Francisco) was an American Algebra. Chelsea. ISBN 0-8218-1646-2
- 1970 (with Thomas Bartee). Modern Applied Algebra. McGraw-Hill.
- 1973. Source Book in Classical Analysis. Harvard Uni. Press.
References
- Garrett Birkhoff at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- O'Connor, John J. The Mathematics Genealogy Project is a web-based Database that gives an Academic genealogy based on Dissertation supervision relations & Robertson, Edmund F. , “Garrett Birkhoff”, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
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