Mourad E. H. Ismail (born April 27, 1944, in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
) is 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 ...
working on
orthogonal polynomials and
special functions
Special functions are particular mathematical functions that have more or less established names and notations due to their importance in mathematical analysis, functional analysis, geometry, physics, or other applications.
The term is defined by ...
.
Ismail received his bachelor's degree from
Cairo University. He holds Masters and doctorate degrees from the
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...
. He worked at and visited several universities. Currently he holds a research professorship at the
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...
and a Distinguished Scientist Fellowship at
King Saud University
King Saud University (KSU, ar, جامعة الملك سعود) is a public university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulaziz to address the country's skilled worker shortage, it is the first university in the K ...
in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
Ismail is 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 2014-12-17 and the Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application.
It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...
. He is among the ISI highly cited scientists. He served on the editorial boards of several journals including ''Constructive Approximation'', ''Journal of Approximation Theory'', ''Journal of Physics A'', and ''The Ramanujan Journal''. He published over 290 research articles, one book and edited several books.
Most of Ismail's work is joint with other mathematicians and physicists and some of his papers are interdisciplinary. Mourad Ismail works in the area of special functions, orthogonal polynomials and their applications. His research also touches upon approximation theory
In mathematics, approximation theory is concerned with how function (mathematics), functions can best be approximation, approximated with simpler functions, and with quantitative property, quantitatively characterization (mathematics), characteri ...
and continued fractions. He worked on infinite divisibility
Infinite divisibility arises in different ways in philosophy, physics, economics, order theory (a branch of mathematics), and probability theory (also a branch of mathematics). One may speak of infinite divisibility, or the lack thereof, of matter ...
problems in probability
Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...
that led to questions about monotonicity properties of special functions. He also worked on monotonicity and inequalities for zeros of orthogonal polynomials. He made several contributions to the asymptotic theory of orthogonal polynomials. He also studied moment problems and found the orthogonality measure for several orthogonal polynomials. This includes the ''q''-ultraspherical polynomials (also known as the Askey–Ismail or Rogers–Askey–Ismail polynomials), the random walk polynomials (also known as
the Askey–Ismail polynomials), the Al-Salam–Ismail polynomials, and the Chihara–Ismail polynomials. Ismail also worked on ''q''-series and Rogers–Ramanujan identities. Ismail is also interested in the combinatorial theory of orthogonal polynomials and their linearization coefficients.
Publications
*
See also
* Askey–Bateman project
The Bateman Manuscript Project was a major effort at collation and encyclopedic compilation of the mathematical theory of special functions. It resulted in the eventual publication of five important reference volumes, under the editorship of Arthu ...
References
Mourad E.H. Ismail home page
De Gruyter Open
Microsoft Academic Research
Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ismail, Mourad E. H.
Living people
20th-century Egyptian mathematicians
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
1944 births
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society