Robert Horton Cameron (May 17, 1908 – July 17, 1989) was an American mathematician, who worked on analysis and

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...

. He is known for the

Cameron–Martin theorem In mathematics, the Cameron–Martin theorem or Cameron–Martin formula (named after Robert Horton Cameron and W. T. Martin) is a theorem of measure theory that describes how abstract Wiener measure changes under translation by certain elements ...

Education and career

Cameron received his Ph.D. in 1932 from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

under the direction of W. A. Hurwitz. He studied under a

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

postdoc 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 ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

from 1933 to 1935.Cameron, Robert H., Community of Scholars Profile, IAS
/ref> Cameron was a faculty member at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

from 1935 to 1945. He was then a faculty member at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

until his retirement. He spent the academic year 1953–1954 on sabbatical leave at the Institute for Advanced Study. His doctoral students include

Monroe D. Donsker Monroe David Donsker (October 17, 1924 – June 8, 1991) was an American mathematician and a professor of mathematics at New York University (NYU). His research interest was probability theory.. Education and career Donsker was born in Bur ...

and

Elizabeth Cuthill Elizabeth Hahnemann Cuthill (October 16, 1923 – January 11, 2011) was an American applied mathematician and numerical analyst known for her work on sparse matrix algorithms, on block iterative methods for the numerical approximation of differen ...

. He had a total of 35 Ph.D. students at the University of Minnesota — his first two graduated in 1946 and his last one in 1977. Cameron published a total of 72 papers — his first in 1934 and his last, posthumously, in 1990.Information provided by Prof. Emeritus David Skoug, U. of Nebraska, Feb. 2013 At MIT, he did some work with

Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...

. During the 1940s Cameron and

W. T. Martin William Ted Martin (June 4, 1911 – May 30, 2004) was an American mathematician, who worked on mathematical analysis, several complex variables, and probability theory. He is known for the Cameron–Martin theorem and for his 1948 book ''Several ...

, who was from 1943 to 1946 the chair of the mathematics department at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

, engaged in an ambitious program of extending Norbert Wiener's early work on mathematical models of Brownian motion. In 1944, Cameron was awarded the

Chauvenet Prize The Chauvenet Prize is the highest award for mathematical expository writing. It consists of a prize of $1,000 and a certificate, and is awarded yearly by the Mathematical Association of America in recognition of an outstanding expository article ...

fo
'"Some Introductory Exercises in the Manipulation of Fourier Transforms"
which appeared in ''National Mathematics Magazine'', 1941, vol. 15, pages 331–356.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Robert Horton 20th-century American mathematicians Cornell University alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Probability theorists University of Minnesota faculty 1908 births 1989 deaths People from Brooklyn