Rudolf Ernest Langer (8 March 1894 – 11 March 1968) was an American mathematician, known for the

Langer correction The Langer correction, named after the mathematician Rudolf Ernest Langer, is a correction to the WKB approximation for problems with radial symmetry. Description In 3D systems When applying WKB approximation method to the radial Schrödinge ...

and as a president of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

.MAA presidents: Rudolf Ernest Langer
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Career

Langer, the elder brother of

William L. Langer William Leonard Langer (March 16, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American historian, intelligence analyst and policy advisor. He served as chairman of the history department at Harvard University. He was on leave during World War II as h ...

and Walter Charles Langer, earned his PhD in 1922 from Harvard University under

G. D. Birkhoff George David Birkhoff (March 21, 1884 – November 12, 1944) was an American mathematician best known for what is now called the ergodic theorem. Birkhoff was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics in his generation, and durin ...

. He taught mathematics at Dartmouth College from 1922 to 1925. From 1927 to 1964 he was a mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and, from 1942 to 1952, the chair of the mathematics department. From 1956 to 1963 he was the director of the Army Mathematics Research Center; he was succeeded as director by

J. Barkley Rosser John Barkley Rosser Sr. (December 6, 1907 – September 5, 1989) was an American logician, a student of Alonzo Church, and known for his part in the Church–Rosser theorem, in lambda calculus. He also developed what is now called the "Rosser siev ...

. Langer's doctoral students include Nicholas D. Kazarinoff, Homer Newell, Jr., and

Henry Scheffé Henry Scheffé (April 11, 1907 – July 5, 1977) was an American statistician. He is known for the Lehmann–Scheffé theorem and Scheffé's method. Education and career Scheffé was born in New York City on April 11, 1907, the child of Germa ...

. Langer was a colleague of American physicist Carl David Anderson, discoverer of the

positron The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. It has an electric charge of +1 '' e'', a spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same mass as an electron. When a positron collides ...

, and was one of the few people to have read Dirac’s work on the anti-electron and made a connection. He sent a short paper to '' Science'' making connections between the new observations and Dirac’s theories, putting forth imaginative claims such as that the proton is made of a neutron and a positron. His paper was not taken seriously.

Works

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Langer, Rudolf Ernest 1894 births 1968 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians Harvard University alumni Presidents of the Mathematical Association of America University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty