Allen Lowell Shields (May 7, 1927 – September 16, 1989) was an American mathematician who worked on

measure theory In mathematics, the concept of a measure is a generalization and formalization of geometrical measures ( length, area, volume) and other common notions, such as mass and probability of events. These seemingly distinct concepts have many simil ...

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

functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (e.g. Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics)#Defini ...

and

operator theory In mathematics, operator theory is the study of linear operators on function spaces, beginning with differential operators and integral operators. The operators may be presented abstractly by their characteristics, such as bounded linear operat ...

, and was "one of the world's leading authorities on spaces of analytic functions." Shields was a student of

Witold Hurewicz Witold Hurewicz (June 29, 1904 – September 6, 1956) was a Polish mathematician. Early life and education Witold Hurewicz was born in Łódź, at the time one of the main Polish industrial hubs with economy focused on the textile industry. His ...

. A special issue of ''

The Mathematical Intelligencer ''The Mathematical Intelligencer'' is a mathematical journal published by Springer Verlag that aims at a conversational and scholarly tone, rather than the technical and specialist tone more common among academic journals. Volumes are released quar ...

'', for which he served as editor of the "Years Ago" column, was dedicated to his memory in 1990.

Notable students

Shields directed a large number of doctoral dissertations, including the 1967 PhD thesis of

Theodore Kaczynski Theodore John Kaczynski ( ; born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber (), is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide ...

titled "Boundary Functions".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, Allen Lowell 20th-century American mathematicians 1927 births 1989 deaths University of Michigan faculty