Israel Halperin, (January 5, 1911 – March 8, 2007) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

social activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

Early life and education

Israel Halperin was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

immigrants Solomon Halperin and Fanny Lundy. Halperin attended

Malvern Collegiate Institute Malvern Collegiate Institute (Malvern CI, MCI or Malvern), previously known as East Toronto High School and Malvern High School is a high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada part of the Toronto District School Board. Prior to 1998, it was ...

Victoria University in the University of Toronto Victoria University is a federated university forming part of the wider University of Toronto, and was founded in 1836. The undergraduate section of the university is Victoria College, informally ''Vic'', after the original name of the univers ...

, graduated from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1932, and later was a graduate student of

John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where he received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in mathematics.

Early career

After completing his doctorate in mathematics at Princeton, Halperin took a faculty position at Queen's University beginning in 1939. Halperin joined the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

in 1942, serving until 1945 in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

with the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE). He then returned to Queen's.

Arrest and release

In February 1946, Halperin was arrested and accused of

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, in connection with the

defection In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

Igor Gouzenko Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (russian: Игорь Сергеевич Гузенко ; January 26, 1919 – June 25, 1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, and a lieutenant of the GRU (Main Intelligence Direc ...

, a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

clerk, which occurred in

in September 1945. Gouzenko's defection and subsequent investigation showed that the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

was carrying on large-scale spying in

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, including

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

espionage. After some arduous questioning and confinement lasting several weeks, under a Royal Commission appointed by Justice Minister

Louis St-Laurent Louis Stephen St. Laurent (''Saint-Laurent'' or ''St-Laurent'' in French, baptized Louis-Étienne St-Laurent; February 1, 1882 – July 25, 1973) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 12th prime minister of Canada from 19 ...

, followed by a trial in early 1947, Halperin was eventually cleared and freed. He resumed teaching at Queen's, but not until 1948, following more legal hurdles which were raised by Queen's University leadership. Queen's Principal

Robert Charles Wallace Robert Charles Wallace (June 15, 1881 – January 29, 1955) was a Scots-Canadian geologist, educator, and administrator who served as president of the University of Alberta (1928–1936), the principal of Queen's University (1936–1951), and the ...

advocated his return.

Later career

Following von Neumann's death in 1957, Halperin completed two of his unfinished papers, leaving them under von Neumann's name alone. Halperin taught at Queen's until 1966, earning

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

as a full professor. He then moved to the

until his retirement in 1976, by which time he had authored more than 100 academic papers. In 1980, the Israel Halperin Prize was setup by the Canadian Annual Symposium on Operator Theory and Operator Algebras to be awarded to a member of the Canadian mathematical community who has recently obtained a doctorate and has made contributions to operator theory or operator algebras, in honor of Halperin. Halperin was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from Queen's in 1989, and was made a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

, both for his humanitarian work.

Honours

Halperin was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

in 1953, and won the

Henry Marshall Tory Medal The Henry Marshall Tory Medal is an award of the Royal Society of Canada "for outstanding research in a branch of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, or an allied science". It is named in honour of Henry Marshall Tory and is awarded bi-annu ...

in 1967.

Personal life

Halperin was the father of four children, all of whom went on to become professors: William Halperin,

Connie Eaves Connie Jean Eaves, CorrFRSE ( née Constance Halperin; born May 22, 1944), is a Canadian biologist with significant contributions to cancer and stem cell research. Eaves is a professor generics of genetics at the University of British Columbia ...

, Stephen Halperin, and Mary Hannah. Halperin died in 2007 at age 96.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Halperin, Israel 1911 births 2007 deaths Activists from Quebec Activists from Toronto Canadian activists Canadian mathematicians Canadian military personnel of World War II Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Members of the Order of Canada Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston People from Westmount, Quebec Scientists from Quebec Scientists from Toronto Princeton University alumni University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto