Francis Joseph Murray (February 3, 1911 – March 15, 1996) was 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 ...

, known for his foundational work (with

John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...

) on

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 what subsequently became known as

von Neumann algebras In mathematics, a von Neumann algebra or W*-algebra is a *-algebra of bounded operators on a Hilbert space that is closed in the weak operator topology and contains the identity operator. It is a special type of C*-algebra. Von Neumann alge ...

. He received his BA from Columbia College in 1932 and PhD from

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 ...

in 1936. He taught at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. In 1967 he was awarded the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal by the U. S. Army.

Selected publications

* 1936 (with J. von Neumann),
On rings of operators
" ''Ann. of Math''. 2(37): 116–229. The original paper on

von Neumann algebra In mathematics, a von Neumann algebra or W*-algebra is a *-algebra of bounded operators on a Hilbert space that is closed in the weak operator topology and contains the identity operator. It is a special type of C*-algebra. Von Neumann algeb ...

s. * 1937 (with J. von Neumann),
On rings of operators II
" ''Trans. Amer. Math. Soc''. 41: 208–248. * 1943 (with J. von Neumann),
On rings of operators IV
" ''Ann. of Math''. 2(44): 716–808. * 1941. ''An Introduction to Linear Transformations in Hilbert Space''. Annals of Mathematics Studies, no. 4. Princeton Univ. Press. * 1947. ''The theory of mathematical machines''. Columbia Univ. Press. * 1954. (with Kenneth S. Miller). ''Existence Theorems for Ordinary Differential Equations''. ; 2nd printing Krieger 1976

Dover 2013. * 1978. ''Applied Mathematics: An Intellectual Orientation''.

References

* *''Retirement of Francis Joseph Murray''. Duke Math. J. 47 (1980), no. 4, 983–985. 1911 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians Columbia University faculty Duke University faculty Operator theorists Scientists from New York City Mathematicians from New York (state) {{US-mathematician-stub Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni