Joseph E. Gillis (3 August 1911 – 18 November 1993) was a British-Israeli mathematician and one of the founders of the Faculty of Mathematics at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

, where he served as a Professor of Applied Mathematics. He made notable contributions to fractal sets, fluid dynamics, random walks, and pioneered the combinatorial theory of special functions of mathematical physics.

Career

Gillis was born on 3 August 1911 in Sunderland, in the north east of England. He studied at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, completing his doctoral thesis on "Some Geometrical Properties of Linearly Measurable Plane Sets of Points" under A.S. Besicovitch in 1935. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he worked in

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...

as a cryptographer. He taught maths at Queen's University Belfast between 1937 and 1947. In 1948 he immigrated to Israel and joined the

(then the Ziv Institute), where he, along with others, founded the Department of Applied Mathematics. He also served as the Academic Secretary. During the Academic Year 1954-1955 he visited 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 schola ...

as part of the Electronic Computer Project headed by

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 ...

. He was very active in advancing mathematics education, and chaired the department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute. He also started the Israel

Mathematics Olympiad Mathematics competitions or mathematical olympiads are competitive events where participants complete a math test. These tests may require multiple choice or numeric answers, or a detailed written solution or proof. International mathematics comp ...

and coached the Israeli team for many years, as well as edited mathematics periodicals for high school students and amateurs.The Yosef Gillis National Youth Mathematics Olympiad
Weizmann Institute of Science n Hebrew/ref>

Personal life

He was married to

Olga Kirsch Olga Kirsch ( he, אולגה קירש; 1924–1997) was a South African and Israeli poet. Biography Kirsch was born and brought up in Koppies in the then Orange Free State, South Africa. Her father had emigrated there from Lithuania and, though ...

and had two daughters. He died on 18 November 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillis, Joseph E. Israeli mathematicians 1911 births 1993 deaths Academic staff of Weizmann Institute of Science 20th-century English mathematicians People from Sunderland Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of Queen's University Belfast British emigrants to Israel Bletchley Park people 20th-century Israeli mathematicians