Biography:Hans Lewy

From HandWiki
Short description: American mathematician
Hans Lewy
Hans Lewy.jpeg
Hans Lewy in 1975
(photo by George Bergman)
Born(1904-10-20)October 20, 1904
Breslau, Prussia
DiedAugust 23, 1988(1988-08-23) (aged 83)
Berkeley, California, United States of America
NationalityUnited States of America
Alma materUniversity of Göttingen
Known forCourant–Friedrichs–Lewy condition, Lewy's example
AwardsWolf Prize (1986)[1]
Scientific career
FieldsMathematical analysis, partial differential equations, several complex variables
Doctoral advisorRichard Courant[2]
Doctoral studentsDavid Kinderlehrer

Hans Lewy (20 October 1904 – 23 August 1988) was a Jewish American mathematician, known for his work on partial differential equations and on the theory of functions of several complex variables.[3]

Life

Lewy was born in Breslau, Silesia, on October 20, 1904. He began his studies at the University of Göttingen in 1922, after being advised to avoid the more local University of Breslau because it was too old-fashioned,[4]Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

He retired from Berkeley in 1972, and in 1973 became one of two Ordway Professors of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. He died on August 23, 1988, in Berkeley.[5][6][7]

Lewy is known for his contributions to partial differential equations. In 1957, his famous example of a second-order linear partial differential equation was so stunning and unexpected that the whole field steered in a new direction, as well as shaping modern analysis in a significant way. Based on this example, Louis Nirenberg, Lars Hörmander and others have outlined some important changes to the theory and structure of the field. This was adopted by many analysts and mathematicians as a major development.

He also worked on several complex variables in relation to nonlinear hyperbolic equations and elliptic equations, well-posedness for initial value problems of wave fronts (now commonly called Sobolev spaces) in the early 1930s, solutions of the classical problems of Hermann Weyl and Hermann Minkowski for analytical data (the original problem was solved by Louis Nirenberg in 1949 as part of his PhD thesis), the extendibility of minimal surfaces on and analytical nature of its boundaries which is fully free or in part, free boundary problems of water wave fronts in hydrodynamics, and the proof of quadratic reciprocity theorem in number theory from 'hydrodynamical' perspective.

Awards and honors

Lewy was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1964, and was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6] He became a foreign member of the Accademia dei Lincei in 1972.[5] He was awarded a Leroy P. Steele Prize in 1979,[5] and a Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 1986 for his work on partial differential equations.[1] In 1986, the University of Bonn gave him an honorary doctorate.[7]

Publications

A selection of his work, edited by David Kinderlehrer and including his most important works, was published as the two volume work (Kinderlehrer 2002a) and (Kinderlehrer 2002b)

The following works are included in his "Selecta" in their original language or translated form.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wolf Foundation (2003) (in he), THE 1984/5 WOLF FOUNDATION PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS, http://www.wolffund.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=winners&name=&prize=&year=1984&field=3004, retrieved September 14, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Hans Lewy at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ↑ ""Hans Lewy" prepared by S. Hildebrandt". Wolf Prize. 2. World Scientific. 2001. pp. 264–310. ISBN 9789812811769. https://books.google.com/books?id=GHFtMc9NTkYC&pg=PA264. 
  4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named mmp
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named kin
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Dr. Hans Lewy, 83, Mathematics Professor", The New York Times, September 2, 1988, https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/02/obituaries/dr-hans-lewy-83-mathematics-profesor.html 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Protter, M.; J. L., Kelley; Kato, T.; Lehmer, D. H. (1988), "Hans Lewy, Mathematics: Berkeley. 1904-1988 Professor Emeritus", in Krogh, David, 1988, University of California: In Memoriam, Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley, pp. 85–87, http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb967nb5k3&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00032&toc.depth=1&toc.id= .
  8. ↑ Reid, W. T. (1940). "Review: Aspects of the Calculus of Variations, notes by J. W. Green from lectures by Hans Lewy". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 46 (7): 595–596. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1940-07238-6. http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183502779. 

External links



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Biography:Hans_Lewy&oldid=3404494"