Carl Benjamin Boyer (November 3, 1906 – April 26, 1976) was an American historian of sciences, and especially mathematics. Novelist

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', whi ...

called him the "

Gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India ...

math Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

history". It has been written that he was one of few historians of mathematics of his time to "keep open links with contemporary history of science."

Life and career

Boyer was

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

of his

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

class. He received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from Columbia College in 1928 and an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1929. He received his

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 a ...

in Mathematics from Columbia University in 1939. He was a full professor of Mathematics at the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

from 1952 until his death, although he had begun tutoring and teaching at Brooklyn College in 1928. Along with

Carolyn Eisele Carolyn Eisele (June 13, 1902 – January 15, 2000) was an American mathematician and history of mathematics, historian of mathematics known as an expert on the works of Charles Sanders Peirce.... Education and career Eisele was born on June ...

of CUNY's

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

; C. Doris Hellman of the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, and later CUNY's

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

; and

Lynn Thorndike Lynn Thorndike (24 July 1882, in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA – 28 December 1965, Columbia University Club, New York City) was an American historian of medieval science and alchemy. He was the son of a clergyman, Edward R. Thorndike, and the younge ...

of Columbia University, Boyer was instrumental in the 1953 founding of the Metropolitan New York Section of the

History of Science Society The History of Science Society (HSS) is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. It was founded in 1924 by George Sarton, David Eugene Smith, and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, primarily to support the public ...

. In 1954, Boyer was the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

to further his work in the history of science. In particular, the grant made reference to "the history of the theory of the rainbow". Boyer wrote the books ''The History of the Calculus and Its Conceptual Development'' (1959), originally published as ''The Concepts of the Calculus'' (1939), ''History of Analytic Geometry'' (1956), ''The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics'' (1959), and ''A History of Mathematics'' (1968). He served as book-review editor of ''

Scripta Mathematica ''Scripta Mathematica'' was a quarterly journal published by Yeshiva University devoted to the philosophy, history, and expository treatment of mathematics. It was said to be, at its time, "the only mathematical magazine in the world edited by spe ...

''. Boyer died 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 may tr ...

in New York City in 1976. In 1978, Boyer's widow, the former Marjorie Duncan Nice, a professor of history, established the Carl B. Boyer Memorial Prize, to be awarded annually to a

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

undergraduate for the best essay on a scientific or mathematical topic.

References

Notes Further reading *Boyer, Carl B. (August 30–September 6, 1950). Lecture
"The Foremost Textbook of Modern Times."
International Congress of Mathematicians, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Retrieved on 2009-02-20. *Boyer, Carl B. (1949)
The history of the calculus and its conceptual development
Hafner Publishing Company, New York, ed. Dover 1959. Retrieved on 2010-03-30.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyer, Carl Benjamin 1906 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians American historians of mathematics 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University alumni Brooklyn College faculty American male non-fiction writers Educators from Pennsylvania People from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Writers from Pennsylvania