Erik Magnus Alfsen (13 May 1930 – 20 November 2019) was a Norwegian mathematician. He is the author of ''Compact Convex Sets and Boundary Integrals'', published in 1971. He was a board member of the

Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities The Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (Norges almenvitenskapelige forskningsråd, NAVF) was one of Norway's five research councils. It was established in 1949. NAVF was responsible for funding the natural sciences. In 1993, t ...

(NAVF) for two years, and has also been involved in

Nei til Atomvåpen Nei or NEI may refer to: *Nei, Iran, a village in Ardabil Province, Iran *Nei, a character in the ''Phantasy Star II'' roleplaying game *Nutrition and Education International *Nuclear Energy Institute, American nuclear industry lobbying group *N ...

and the

Pugwash Conferences The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was fo ...

. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Personal life

He was born in Oslo as the son of school headmaster Knut Alfsen (1897–1978) and his wife Harriet Helander Nilsen (1901–1991). He was the grandson of

Magnus Alfsen Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wi ...

, and a first cousin of

Lars Walløe Lars Walløe (born 20 May 1938) is a Norwegian academic, chemist, physiologist, and scientific adviser to the Norwegian government. He was Head of Norwegian Delegation to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC); a ...

. Both his father and grandfather were headmasters and writers of a well-known textbook in mathematics. In July 1955 he married Ellen Platou; his father-in-law was then

Carl Platou Carl Nicolai Stoud Platou (25 July 1885 – 1 February 1956) was a Norwegian civil servant and politician. A jurist by education, he is best known for his civil servant career in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police, which spanned from ...

Career

Erik Alfsen enrolled in the University of Oslo in 1949, studied at

Institut Henri Poincaré The Henri Poincaré Institute (or IHP for ''Institut Henri Poincaré'') is a mathematics research institute part of Sorbonne University, in association with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). It is located in the 5th arrond ...

from 1954 to 1955, and back in Oslo, he took the

cand.real. Candidatus realium or candidata realium (abbreviated cand. real.) is a former academic degree used in Norway, and conferred in mathematics and natural sciences. It was abolished in 1985. There was originally no set duration for the completion of th ...

degree in 1955. After two years as a research fellow in

NAVF The Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (Norges almenvitenskapelige forskningsråd, NAVF) was one of Norway's five research councils. It was established in 1949. NAVF was responsible for funding the natural sciences. In 1993, t ...

, he was appointed as lecturer at the University of Oslo. After a time as visiting assistant professor in Seattle from 1961 to 1962, he was promoted to

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

in Oslo in 1963 and was a professor from 1975 to 2000.

References

1930 births 2019 deaths Architects from Oslo University of Oslo alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters Members of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters Norwegian expatriates in France Norwegian expatriates in the United States Artists from Oslo Norwegian anti–nuclear weapons activists 20th-century Norwegian mathematicians 21st-century Norwegian mathematicians {{Norway-academic-bio-stub