Alfred Gray (October 22, 1939 – October 27, 1998) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

whose main research interests were in differential geometry. He also made contributions in the fields of

complex variable Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebrai ...

s and differential equations.

Short biography

Alfred Gray was born in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

to Alfred James Gray & Eloise Evans and studied mathematics at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

. He received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

in 1964 and spent four years at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. From 1970–1998 he was a professor at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. He died in

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, Spain of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

while working with students in a computer lab at Colegio Mayor

Miguel de Unamuno Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (29 September 1864 – 31 December 1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca. His major philosophical essa ...

around 4 AM, on October 27, 1998.

Mathematical contributions

In the broad area of differential geometry, he made specific contributions in classifying various types of geometrical structures, such as (

Kähler manifold In mathematics and especially differential geometry, a Kähler manifold is a manifold with three mutually compatible structures: a complex structure, a Riemannian structure, and a symplectic structure. The concept was first studied by Jan Arn ...

s and

almost Hermitian manifold In mathematics, and more specifically in differential geometry, a Hermitian manifold is the complex analogue of a Riemannian manifold. More precisely, a Hermitian manifold is a complex manifold with a smoothly varying Hermitian inner product o ...

s). Gray introduced the concept of a

nearly Kähler manifold In mathematics, a nearly Kähler manifold is an almost Hermitian manifold M, with almost complex structure J, such that the (2,1)-tensor \nabla J is skew-symmetric. So, : (\nabla_X J)X =0 for every vector field X on M. In particular, a Kähl ...

, gave topological obstructions to the existence of geometrical structures, made several contributions in the computation of the volume of

tubes Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a ...

and balls, curvature identities, etc. He published a book on tubes and is the author of two textbooks and over one hundred scientific articles. His books were translated into

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and

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. He was a pioneer in the use of

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

in teaching differential geometry (particularly the geometry of curves and surfaces) and of using electronic computation in teaching both differential geometry and

ordinary differential equation In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation whose unknown(s) consists of one (or more) function(s) of one variable and involves the derivatives of those functions. The term ''ordinary'' is used in contrast ...

References

External links

List of publications

Differential geometry web site maintained in his honor

* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTlRzUSAZE A short film in remembrance of Prof. Alfred Gray 1939 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Maryland, College Park faculty People from Dallas Mathematicians from Texas University of Kansas alumni Differential geometers {{US-mathematician-stub