This revised and greatly expanded second edition of the Russian text contains a wealth of new information about the lives and accomplishments of more than a dozen scientists throughout five centuries of history: from the first steps in algebra up to new achievements in geometry in connection with physics. The heroes of the book are renowned figures from early eras, as well some scientists of last century. A unique mixture of mathematics, physics, and history, this volume provides biographical glimpses of scientists and their contributions in the context of the social and political background of their times.

Tales of Mathematicians and Physicists

Gindikin, Simon

Biographies & Memoirs

Springer

This revised and greatly expanded second edition of the classic Russian text Tales of Mathematicians and Physicists contains a wealth of new information about the lives and accomplishments of more than a dozen scientists throughout history. Included are individuals from the late nineteenth century: Klein, Poincaré, Ramanujan, and Penrose, as well as renowned figures from earlier eras, such as Leibniz, Euler, Lagrange, and Laplace. A unique mixture of mathematics, physics, and history, this volume provides biographical glimpses of scientists and their contributions in the context of the social and political background of their times. The author examines many original sources, from the scientists’ research papers to their personal documents and letters to friends and family; furthermore, detailed mathematical arguments and diagrams are supplied to help explain some of the most significant discoveries in calculus, celestial mechanics, number theory, and modern relativity. What emerges are intriguing, multifaceted studies of a number of remarkable intellectuals and their scientific legacy. Written by a distinguished mathematician and accessible to readers at all levels, this book is a wonderful resource for both students and teachers and a welcome introduction to the history of science.

Tales of Physicists and Mathematicians

Science & Math

Mathematics

Birkhauser

A four-day conference, "Functional Analysis on the Eve of the Twenty­ First Century," was held at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, from October 24 to 27, 1993, in honor of the eightieth birthday of Professor Israel Moiseyevich Gelfand. He was born in Krasnye Okna, near Odessa, on September 2, 1913. Israel Gelfand has played a crucial role in the development of functional analysis during the last half-century. His work and his philosophy have in fact helped to shape our understanding of the term "functional analysis" itself, as has the celebrated journal Functional Analysis and Its Applications, which he edited for many years. Functional analysis appeared at the beginning of the century in the classic papers of Hilbert on integral operators. Its crucial aspect was the geometric interpretation of families of functions as infinite-dimensional spaces, and of op­ erators (particularly differential and integral operators) as infinite-dimensional analogues of matrices, directly leading to the geometrization of spectral theory. This view of functional analysis as infinite-dimensional geometry organically included many facets of nineteenth-century classical analysis, such as power series, Fourier series and integrals, and other integral transforms.

Functional Analysis on the Eve of the 21st Century in Honor of the 80th Birthday of I.M. Gelfand 1+2 (Progress in Mathematics). TWO VOLUMES

WILSON, Robert

Lepowsky, James

History & Philosophy

Combining presentation of new results with in-depth surveys of recent work, this book focuses on representation theory and harmonic analysis on real and $p$-adic groups. The papers are based on lectures presented at a conference dedicated to the memory of Larry Corwin and held at Rutgers University in February 1993. The book presents a survey of harmonic analysis on nilpotent homogeneous spaces, results on multiplicity formulas for induced representations, new methods for constructing unitary representations of real reductive groups, and a unified treatment of trace Paley-Wiener theorems for real and $p$-adic reductive groups. In the representation theory of the general linear group over $p$-adic fields, the book provides a description of Corwin's contributions, a survey of the role of Hecke algebras, and a presentation of the theory of simple types. Other types of reductive $p$-adic groups are also discussed. Among the other topics included are the representation theory of discrete rational nilpotent groups, skew-fields associated to quadratic algebras, and finite models for percolation. A timely publication featuring contributions by some of the top researchers in the field, this book offers a perspective not often found in conference proceedings.

Representation Theory and Analysis on Homogeneous Spaces: A Conference in Memory of Larry Corwin February 5-7, 1993 Rutgers University (Contemporary Mathematics)

Goodman, Roe

Amer Mathematical Society

A four-day conference, "Functional Analysis on the Eve of the Twenty First Century," was held at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, from October 24 to 27, 1993, in honor of the eightieth birthday of Professor Israel Moiseyevich Gelfand. He was born in Krasnye Okna, near Odessa, on September 2, 1913. Israel Gelfand has played a crucial role in the development of functional analysis during the last half-century. His work and his philosophy have in fact helped to shape our understanding of the term "functional analysis" itself, as has the celebrated journal Functional Analysis and Its Applications, which he edited for many years. Functional analysis appeared at the beginning of the century in the classic papers of Hilbert on integral operators. Its crucial aspect was the geometric interpretation of families of functions as infinite-dimensional spaces, and of op erators (particularly differential and integral operators) as infinite-dimensional analogues of matrices, directly leading to the geometrization of spectral theory. This view of functional analysis as infinite-dimensional geometry organically included many facets of nineteenth-century classical analysis, such as power series, Fourier series and integrals, and other integral transforms.

Functional Analysis on the Eve of the 21st Century: Volume I: In Honor of the Eightieth Birthday of I. M. Gelfand (Progress in Mathematics)