Gilbert Baumslag (April 30, 1933 – October 20, 2014) was a

Distinguished Professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, with joint appointments in

mathematics 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 ...

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 ...

, and

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 was director of th
Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software
which grew out of the MAGNUS

computational group theory In mathematics, computational group theory is the study of group (mathematics), groups by means of computers. It is concerned with designing and analysing algorithms and data structures to compute information about groups. The subject has attracted ...

project he also headed. Baumslag was also the organizer of the New York Group Theory Seminar. Baumslag graduated from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

with a

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

Honours (Masters) and

D.Sc. Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

He earned 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 ...

from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

in 1958; his thesis, written under the direction of

Bernhard Neumann Bernhard Hermann Neumann (15 October 1909 – 21 October 2002) was a German-born British-Australian mathematician, who was a leader in the study of group theory. Early life and education After gaining a D.Phil. from Friedrich-Wilhelms Universit ...

, was titled ''Some aspects of groups with unique roots''. His contributions include the

Baumslag–Solitar group In the mathematical field of group theory, the Baumslag–Solitar groups are examples of two-generator one-relator groups that play an important role in combinatorial group theory and geometric group theory as (counter)examples and test-cases. ...

s and parafree groups. Baumslag was a visiting scholar 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 1968–69. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2012-11-10.

Works

* Gilbert Baumslag, ''Groups with the same lower central sequence as a relatively free group. I. The groups'',

Transactions of the American Mathematical Society The ''Transactions of the American Mathematical Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics published by the American Mathematical Society. It was established in 1900. As a requirement, all articles must be more than 15 p ...

129 (1967), 308–321. * Gilbert Baumslag, ''Groups with the same lower central sequence as a relatively free group. II. Properties'', Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 142 (1969), 507–538. * Gilbert Baumslag and Donald Solitar, ''Some two-generator one-relator non-Hopfian groups'',

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society The ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' is a quarterly mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society. Scope It publishes surveys on contemporary research topics, written at a level accessible to non-experts. I ...

68 (1962), 199–201.

Notes

External links

Gilbert Baumslag
at CCNY
Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software
at CCNY
New York Group Theory Seminar
at The CUNY Graduate Center 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Group theorists City College of New York faculty 1933 births 2014 deaths Alumni of the University of Manchester University of the Witwatersrand alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Fellows of the American Mathematical Society {{US-mathematician-stub