Arthur Leonard Rubin (born 1956) is an American mathematician and

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

. He was named a

Putnam Fellow The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...

on four consecutive occasions from 1970 to 1973.

Life and career

Rubin's mother was Jean E. Rubin, a professor of mathematics at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

, and his father was Herman Rubin, a professor of statistics at the same university. Arthur co-authored his first paper with his mother in 1969 at the age of 13. He earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in 1978, under the direction of Alexander S. Kechris. Rubin unsuccessfully stood as a Libertarian to represent the 55th district in the 1984 California State Assembly elections.

Awards and honors

As an undergraduate, Rubin was named a Putnam Fellow on four occasions, the first time in 1970, aged 14, making him the youngest Fellow to date. In 1972, he tied for third place in the first USA Mathematical Olympiad. In 1974, Rubin was the subject of an article in the '' Madison Capital Times'', in which his Caltech undergraduate advisor was quoted as saying that someone of Rubin's ability appeared in the United States "about once in every ten years".Alternate Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

. Reprinted and slightly altered in Madison Capital Times on July 6, 1974

Publications

Rubin's dissertation was entitled '' Free

Algebras In mathematics, an algebra over a field (often simply called an algebra) is a vector space equipped with a bilinear product. Thus, an algebra is an algebraic structure consisting of a set together with operations of multiplication and addition ...

Von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel Set Theory In the foundations of mathematics, von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory (NBG) is an axiomatic set theory that is a conservative extension of Zermelo–Fraenkel–choice set theory (ZFC). NBG introduces the notion of class, which is a colle ...

and Positive Elementary Inductions in Reasonable Structures''. In 1979, Rubin co-authored a paper on list coloring of graphs with Paul Erdős, giving him an

Erdős number The Erdős number () describes the "collaborative distance" between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers. The same principle has been applied in other fields where a particular individual ...

of 1. * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Arthur 1956 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American aerospace engineers California Libertarians California Institute of Technology alumni Putnam Fellows