Nelson James Dunford (December 12, 1906 – September 7, 1986) was an American

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 work in

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 ...

, namely integration of vector valued functions,

ergodic theory Ergodic theory (Greek: ' "work", ' "way") is a branch of mathematics that studies statistical properties of deterministic dynamical systems; it is the study of ergodicity. In this context, statistical properties means properties which are expres ...

, and

linear operator In mathematics, and more specifically in linear algebra, a linear map (also called a linear mapping, linear transformation, vector space homomorphism, or in some contexts linear function) is a mapping V \to W between two vector spaces that pre ...

s. The Dunford decomposition, Dunford–Pettis property, and Dunford-Schwartz theorem bear his name. He studied mathematics at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and obtained his Ph.D. in 1936 at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

under

Jacob Tamarkin Jacob David Tamarkin (russian: Я́ков Дави́дович Тама́ркин, ''Yakov Davidovich Tamarkin''; 11 July 1888 – 18 November 1945) was a Russian-American mathematician best known for his work in mathematical analysis. Biography ...

. He moved in 1939 to

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he remained until his retirement in 1960. In 1981, he was awarded jointly with

Jacob T. Schwartz __NOTOC__ Jacob Theodore "Jack" Schwartz (January 9, 1930 – March 2, 2009) was an American mathematician, computer scientist, and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He was the ...

, his Ph.D. student, the well-known

Leroy P. Steele Prize The Leroy P. Steele Prizes are awarded every year by the American Mathematical Society, for distinguished research work and writing in the field of mathematics. Since 1993, there has been a formal division into three categories. The prizes have b ...

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, ...

for the three-volume work ''Linear operators''. Nelson Dunford was coeditor of

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 ...

(1941–1945) and Mathematical Surveys and Monographs (1945–1949).

Publications

* * Nelson Dunford, Jacob T. Schwartz, Linear Operators, Part I General Theory , Part II Spectral Theory, Self Adjoint Operators in Hilbert Space , Part III Spectral Operators

References

* Obituary in Notices Amer. Math. Soc., Vol. 34, 1987, p. 287

External links

* 1906 births 1986 deaths People from St. Louis Mathematicians from Missouri 20th-century American mathematicians Brown University alumni Yale University faculty Operator theorists University of Chicago alumni {{US-mathematician-stub