Wendell Helms Fleming (born March 7, 1928) is an American mathematician, specializing in geometrical analysis and stochastic differential equations. Fleming received in 1951 his PhD under

Laurence Chisholm Young Laurence Chisholm Young (14 July 1905 – 24 December 2000) was a British mathematician known for his contributions to measure theory, the calculus of variations, optimal control theory, and potential theory. He was the son of William Henry Yo ...

at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

with a thesis entitled ''Boundary and related notions for generalized parametric surfaces''. Fleming was a professor 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 ...

, where he retired in 2009 as professor emeritus. Fleming was with

Herbert Federer Herbert Federer (July 23, 1920 – April 21, 2010) was an American mathematician. He is one of the creators of geometric measure theory, at the meeting point of differential geometry and mathematical analysis.Parks, H. (2012''Remembering Herbert ...

a pioneer of

geometric measure theory In mathematics, geometric measure theory (GMT) is the study of geometric properties of sets (typically in Euclidean space) through measure theory. It allows mathematicians to extend tools from differential geometry to a much larger class of surfa ...

. Later in his career, he worked on stochastic processes, stochastic differential equations and their applications in control theory. In 1976–1977 he was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1982 he gave a plenary address (''Optimal control of Markov Processes'') at the ICM in Warsaw.

Awards and honors

In 1987 he received with Federer the

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, ...

. In 1994 he won the Reid Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He was given an honorary doctorate at Purdue University in 1991. In 2006 he received the Isaacs Award. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

. In May 2012 his election to membership in the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

was announced.

Selected works

*. *. The first paper of Federer and Fleming illustrating their approach to the theory of perimeters based on the theory of

currents Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

. * with Raymond W. Rishel
''Deterministic and stochastic optimal control''
Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York 1975, * ''Functions of several variables'', Addison Wesley, 1965, Springer

* with Halil Mete Soner: ''Controlled Markov Processes and Viscosity Solutions'', Springer, 1992

References

External links

*

– Homepage at Brown University {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Wendell 1928 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Guthrie, Oklahoma Mathematicians from Oklahoma University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Brown University faculty