David Wolfe is a

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 ...

and amateur Go player.

Education and career

Wolfe graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1985, with a bachelor's degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He obtained a Ph.D. in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

from the

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 ...

in 1994, with a dissertation ''Mathematics of Go: Chilling Corridors'' combining both subjects and supervised by

Elwyn Berlekamp Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp (September 6, 1940 – April 9, 2019) was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.Contributors, ''IEEE Transactions on Information Theory'' 42, #3 (May 1996), p. 1048. DO10.1 ...

. After working as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley from 1991 to 1996, as an associate professor at

Gustavus Adolphus College Gustavus Adolphus College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota. It was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans led by Eric Norelius and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Gustavus gets its nam ...

from 1996 to 2008, and then as an adjunct faculty member at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

, he moved from academia to the software industry. Wolfe was a fan of

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

and in 2009 he teamed up with Tom M. Rodgers to edit a Gardner tribute book.

Books

Wolfe is the author of books on

combinatorial game theory Combinatorial game theory is a branch of mathematics and theoretical computer science that typically studies sequential games with perfect information. Study has been largely confined to two-player games that have a ''position'' that the players ...

, including: *''Mathematical Go: Chilling Gets the Last Point'' (with

, A K Peters, 1994; also published as ''Mathematical Go Endgames: Nightmares for the Professional Go Player'', Ishi Press, 1994) *''Lessons in Play: An Introduction to Combinatorial Game Theory'' (with Michael H. Albert and Richard Nowakowski, A K Peters, 2007; 2nd ed., CRC Press, 2019)Reviews of ''Lessons in Play'': *
updated August 2019 for 2nd ed.
* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, David Combinatorial game theorists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Nationality missing American Go players Go (game) writers Cornell University alumni UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Gustavus Adolphus College faculty Dalhousie University faculty