Biography:Walter Rudin

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Short description: American mathematician
Walter Rudin
Born(1921-05-02)May 2, 1921
Vienna, Austria
DiedMay 20, 2010(2010-05-20) (aged 89)
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materDuke University (B.A. 1947, Ph.D. 1949)
Known forMathematics textbooks; contributions to harmonic analysis and complex analysis[1]
Spouse(s)Mary Ellen Rudin
AwardsAmerican Mathematical Society Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition (1993)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Doctoral advisorJohn Jay Gergen
Doctoral studentsCharles Dunkl
Daniel Rider

Walter Rudin (May 2, 1921 – May 20, 2010[2]) was an Austrian-United States mathematician and professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[3]

In addition to his contributions to complex and harmonic analysis, Rudin was known for his mathematical analysis textbooks: Principles of Mathematical Analysis,[4] Real and Complex Analysis,[5] and Functional Analysis.[6] Rudin wrote Principles of Mathematical Analysis only two years after obtaining his Ph.D. from Duke University, while he was a C. L. E. Moore Instructor at MIT. Principles, acclaimed for its elegance and clarity,[7] has since become a standard textbook for introductory real analysis courses in the United States.[8]

Rudin's analysis textbooks have also been influential in mathematical education worldwide, having been translated into 13 languages, including Russian,[9] Chinese,[10] and Spanish.[11]

Biography

Rudin was born into a Jewish family in Austria in 1921. He was enrolled for a period of time at a Swiss boarding school, the Institut auf dem Rosenberg, where he was part of a small program that prepared its students for entry to British universities.[12] His family fled to France after the Anschluss in 1938.

When France surrendered to Germany in 1940, Rudin fled to England and served in the Royal Navy for the rest of World War II, after which he left for the United States. He obtained both his B.A. in 1947 and Ph.D. in 1949 from Duke University. After his Ph.D., he was a C.L.E. Moore instructor at MIT. He briefly taught at the University of Rochester before becoming a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he remained for 32 years.[2] His research interests ranged from harmonic analysis to complex analysis.

In 1970 Rudin was an Invited Speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Nice.[13] He was awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition in 1993 for authorship of the now classic analysis texts, Principles of Mathematical Analysis and Real and Complex Analysis. He received an honorary degree from the University of Vienna in 2006.

In 1953, he married fellow mathematician Mary Ellen Estill, known for her work in set-theoretic topology. The two resided in Madison, Wisconsin, in the eponymous Walter Rudin House, a home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They had four children.[1]

Rudin died on May 20, 2010, after suffering from Parkinson's disease.[2]

Selected publications

Ph.D. thesis
  • Rudin, Walter (1950). Uniqueness Theory for Laplace Series (Thesis). Duke University.[14]
Selected research articles
Books

Textbooks:

Monographs:

  • Rudin, Walter; Bers, L.; Courant, R.; Stoker, J. J.; Henney, Dagmar Renate (1964). "Fourier Analysis on Groups". Physics Today 17 (1): 82. doi:10.1063/1.3051392. Bibcode1964PhT....17a..82R. [17] (1962)
  • Function Theory in Polydiscs.  (1969)
  • Function Theory in the Unit Ball of [math]\displaystyle{ \mathbb{C}^n }[/math].[18] (1980)

Autobiography:

  • Rudin, Walter (1997). The Way I Remember It. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-0633-3. 

Major awards

  • Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition (1993)

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Vilas Professor Emeritus Walter Rudin died after a long illness on May 20, 2010". http://www.math.wisc.edu/oldhome/news/WRudinObit.html. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ziff, Deborah (May 21, 2010). "Noted UW-Madison mathematician Rudin dies at 89". Wisconsin State Journal. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/article_b6fa8098-6512-11df-9cbf-001cc4c002e0.html. 
  3. Nagel, Alexander; Stout, Edgar Lee; Kahane, Jean-Pierre; Rosay, Jean-Pierre; Wermer, John (2013). "Remembering Walter Rudin (1921–2010)". Notices of the AMS 60 (3): 295–301. doi:10.1090/noti955. http://www.ams.org/notices/201303/rnoti-p295.pdf. 
  4. Rudin, Walter (1976). Principles of Mathematical Analysis (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 007054235X. 
  5. Rudin, Walter (1987). Real and Complex Analysis (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0070542341. 
  6. Rudin, Walter (1991). Functional Analysis (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-100944-2. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 Munroe, M. E. (2016-11-06). "Review: Casper Goffman, Real Functions, and Walter Rudin, Principles of mathematical analysis, and Henry P. Thielman, Theory of functions of real variables" (in EN). Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 59 (6): 572–577. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1953-09765-8. ISSN 0002-9904. http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183518286. 
  8. 8.0 8.1 Locascio, Andrew (13 August 2007). "Book Review: Principles of Mathematical Analysis". Mathematical Association of America. http://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/principles-of-mathematical-analysis. 
  9. Rudin, Walter (1976). Principles of Mathematical Analysis (Russian translation of 2nd ed.). Moscow: Mir Publishers. https://archive.org/details/344.34419762320. 
  10. Rudin, Walter (1979). Principles of Mathematical Analysis (simplified Chinese translation). Beijing: People's Education Press, China Machine Press (reprint, 2004). ISBN 7-111-13417-6. https://archive.org/details/RudinW.1979_201704. 
  11. Rudin, Walter (1980). Principles of Mathematical Analysis (Spanish translation). México: Libros McGraw-Hill. ISBN 968-6046-82-8. 
  12. Rudin, Walter (1992). The Way I Remember it. American Mathematical Society. p. 39. ISBN 9780821872550. 
  13. Rudin, Walter. "Harmonic analysis in polydiscs." Actes Congr. Int. Math., Nice 2 (1970): 489–493.
  14. Bilyk, Dmitriy, ed (2012). "remarks on Walter Rudin's PhD thesis". Recent Advances in Harmonic Analysis and Applications: In Honor of Konstantin Oskolkov. 25. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 59. ISBN 9781461445647. https://books.google.com/books?id=rLJBVuCPvxIC&pg=PA59. 
  15. Shapiro, Victor L. (1968). "Review: Walter Rudin, Real and complex analysis". Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 74 (1): 79–83. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1968-11881-6. http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183529381. 
  16. Kadison, Richard V. (1973-01-01). "Review of Functional Analysis". American Scientist 61 (5): 604. 
  17. Kahane, J.-P. (1964). "Review: Walter Rudin, Fourier analysis on groups". Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 70 (2): 230–232. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1964-11092-2. http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183525932. 
  18. Krantz, Steven G. (1981-11-01). "Review: Walter Rudin, Function theory in the unit ball of [math]\displaystyle{ \mathbb{C}^n }[/math]" (in EN). Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series 5 (3): 331–339. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1981-14951-x. ISSN 0273-0979. http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183548431. 

External links