John W. Dawson Jr. (born February 4, 1944) is an American academic who is an emeritus professor of mathematics at Penn State York.

Early life and education

Born in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...

, Dawson attended the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

as a

National Merit Scholar The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships. The program is managed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded not-for-profit ...

before earning a doctorate in

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...

from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1972.

Career

An internationally recognized authority on the life and work of

Kurt Gödel Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( ; ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel profoundly ...

, Dawson is the author of numerous articles on

axiomatic set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathema ...

and the history of modern logic. From 1982 to 1984, he catalogued Gödel's papers at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

. He also served as a co-editor of ''Gödel's Collected Works''. He retired as co-editor-in-chief of the journal ''History and Philosophy of Logic''.Editorial Board
''History and Philosophy of Logic'',

Taylor and Francis Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, Routledge, F1000 Research and Dovepress. It is a division of ...

. Accessed January 28, 2010

Books by Dawson

*John W. Dawson Jr, 1997. ''Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel'', A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, *John W. Dawson Jr, 2015. ''Why Prove it Again? Alternative Proofs in Mathematical Practice'',

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

, Chaim,

Additional publications

*Dawson, John W. Jr. ''The published work of Kurt Gödel: an annotated bibliography''. ''

Notre Dame J. Formal Logic The ''Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the foundations of mathematics and related fields of mathematical logic, as well as philosophy of mathematics. It was established in 1960 and is pub ...

'' 24 (1983), no. 2, 255–284.

References

External links

Dr. John Dawson, personal webpage
Pennsylvania State University at York 1944 births Living people People from Wichita, Kansas 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Mathematical logicians American philosophy academics American historians of philosophy Set theorists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of Michigan alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars American book editors {{US-mathematician-stub