Robert Creighton Buck (30 August 1920
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
– 1 February 1998 Wisconsin), usually cited as R. Creighton Buck, was an American mathematician who, with
Ralph Boas, introduced
Boas–Buck polynomials. He taught at
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded when Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848, UW–Madison ...
for 40 years. In addition, he was a writer.
Biography
Buck was born in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
.
[ ] He studied at the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
and then earned his PhD in 1947
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
under
David Widder and
Ralph Boas with dissertation ''Uniqueness, Interpolation and Characterization Theorems for Functions of Exponential Type''. For three years he was an assistant professor at
Brown University, before he became in 1950 an associate professor at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
, where he was promoted to professor in 1954. In 1973, he became the acting director of the University of Wisconsin Army Mathematics Research Center when
J. Barkley Rosser retired. At Madison he became in 1980 "Hilldale Professor" and from 1964 to 1966 he was chair of the mathematics department. In 1990 he retired as professor emeritus but remained mathematically active.
Buck worked on
approximation theory
In mathematics, approximation theory is concerned with how functions can best be approximated with simpler functions, and with quantitatively characterizing the errors introduced thereby. Note that what is meant by ''best'' and ''simpler'' wil ...
,
complex analysis
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebra ...
, topological algebra, and
operations research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve dec ...
. He worked for six years for the
Institute for Defense Analyses in operations research. Buck wrote, in collaboration with Ellen F. Buck, a textbook ''Advanced Calculus'', commonly used in U.S. colleges and universities. He also worked on the history of mathematics. For his essay ''Sherlock Holmes in Babylon'' he won the
Lester Randolph Ford Award. His doctoral students include
Lee Rubel and
Thomas W. Hawkins
Thomas W. Hawkins Jr. (born 10 January 1938 in Flushing, New York) is an American historian of mathematics.
Hawkins defended his Ph.D. thesis on ''"The Origins and Early Development of Lebesgue's Theory of Integration"'' at the University of ...
, a well-known historian of mathematics.
Buck was vice-president 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 ...
and the
Mathematical Association of America (MAA), whose "Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics“ (CUPM) he founded and from 1959 to 1963 chaired. In 1962 he was an invited speaker (''Global solutions of differential equations'') at the
International Congress of Mathematicians
The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...
in
Stockholm.
Buck was an accomplished amateur pianist and at age 18 won a prize for composition for piano. He wrote several science fiction stories.
Publications
* Advanced Calculus, McGraw Hill, New York 1956, 3rd edn. Waveland Press, 2003
* with Ralph Boas: Polynomial expansions of analytic functions, Springer 1958,
2nd edn, Academic Press, Springer 1964
* with Ellen F. Buck: Introduction to differential equations, Boston, Houghton Mifflin 1978
* with Alfred Willcox: Calculus of several variables, Houghton Mifflin 1971
“Sherlock Holmes in Babylon”, AMM 1980
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buck, Robert Greighton
1920 births
1998 deaths
Educators from Cincinnati
Scientists from Madison, Wisconsin
Harvard University alumni
University of Cincinnati alumni
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Writers from Cincinnati
Writers from Madison, Wisconsin
20th-century American mathematicians