Edwin Ford Beckenbach (July 18, 1906 – September 5, 1982) was an American mathematician.

Biography

Beckenbach was born July 18, 1906 in

Oak Cliff Oak Cliff is a neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in 1901. It has since retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older established neighborhoods. Oak Cl ...

Dallas County, Texas Dallas County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 2,613,539, making it the ninth-most populous county in the country. Dallas County is included in the Dallas-Arlington-F ...

, the son of a leather worker and on his father's side the grandson of immigrants from Germany. In 1924, he began study at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, where in 1929 he earned a master's degree and in 1931 a PhD under the direction of

Lester R. Ford :''This is about early- and mid-20th-century mathematician. For his mathematician son, active from the mid-20th century, see L. R. Ford Jr.'' Lester Randolph Ford Sr. (October 25, 1886 – November 11, 1967) was an American mathematician, e ...

. As a postdoc, he was a National Research Fellow at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, and the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. In 1933, he was an instructor at Rice University and from 1940 an assistant professor at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. In 1942, Beckenbach became an associate professor at the University of Texas and was from 1945 a professor at

UCLA 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 St ...

. At UCLA, he led the development of the graduate program in mathematics. The first mathematics PhD was granted under his direction as thesis advisor. Beckenbach was also a leader in the founding (in 1948) of the Institute of Numerical Analysis, which was then a branch of the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

. His institute developed in 1948 and 1949 a vacuum-tube computer ( SWAC), which began operation in July 1950 and was for a short time the fastest computer in the world. In 1974 he retired from UCLA as professor emeritus. From 1949 to 1963, he was a consultant for the

Rand Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...

and in the academic year 1951/1952 he was a visiting professor at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

. In the academic year 1958/59 he was a Guggenheim Fellow at

ETH Zürich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

. With

František Wolf František Wolf (1904–1989) was a Czech mathematician known for his contributions to trigonometry and mathematical analysis, specifically the study of the perturbation of linear operators. Wolf was born 1904 in Prostějov, then part of the Aus ...

, Beckenbach founded in 1951 the ''

Pacific Journal of Mathematics The Pacific Journal of Mathematics is a mathematics research journal supported by several universities and research institutes, and currently published on their behalf by Mathematical Sciences Publishers, a non-profit academic publishing organisati ...

'', of which he was the first editor. In 1983, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

. Beckenbach was famous for his work on inequalities and for this subject organized three

Oberwolfach Oberwolfach ( gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Obberwolfä) is a town in the district of Ortenau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the site of the Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics, or Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach. Ge ...

seminars (in 1976, 1978, and 1981). He was a co-author of several college textbooks in mathematics, including algebra, trigonometry, and analytic geometry. From 1933 to 1960, he was married to Madelene Shelby Simons and had from this marriage a son and two daughters. In 1960, the marriage ended in divorce and in the same year he married his second wife Alice Judson Curtiss. He died on September 5, 1982 in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

Works

*''Concepts of Communication'', Krieger 1971 *''Inequalities'', Ergebnisse der Mathematik, Springer Verlag, 1st edn. 1961 with

Richard E. Bellman Richard Ernest Bellman (August 26, 1920 – March 19, 1984) was an American applied mathematician, who introduced dynamic programming in 1953, and made important contributions in other fields of mathematics, such as biomathematics. He founde ...

, 2nd edn. 1965, 1971 *with Richard Bellman: ''Introduction to Inequalities'', Random House 1961 *Editor: ''Modern Mathematics for the Engineer'', McGraw Hill 1957 *Editor: ''Applied combinatorial mathematics'', Wiley 1964

Sources

*M. Goldberg: ''In memoriam: Edwin F. Beckenbach'', in ''General Inequalities 4, Oberwolfach 1983'', Basel, Birkhäuser, 1984

References

External links

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Biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beckenbach, Edwin F 20th-century American mathematicians Rice University alumni University of Michigan faculty University of Texas faculty Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars University of California, Los Angeles faculty People from Oak Cliff, Texas 1906 births 1982 deaths