Abraham Robinson

by Dauben, Joseph W.; Robinson, Abraham

• ISBN13: 9780691037455
• ISBN10: 0691037450
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-02-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

One of the most prominent mathematicians of the twentieth century, Abraham Robinson discovered and developed non-standard analysis, a rigorous theory of infinitesimals that he used to unite mathematical logic with the larger body of historic and modern mathematics. In this first biography of Robinson, Joseph Dauben reveals the mathematician's personal life to have been a dramatic one: developing his talents in spite of war and ethnic repression, Robinson personally confronted some of the worst political troubles of our times. With the skill and expertise familiar to readers of Dauben's earlier works, the book combines an explanation of Robinson's revolutionary achievements in pure and applied mathematics with a description of his odyssey from Hitler's Germany to the United States via conflict-ridden Palestine and wartime Europe. Robinson was born in Prussia in 1918. As a boy, he fled with his mother and brother Saul to Palestine. A decade later he narrowly escaped from Paris as the Germans invaded France. Having spent the rest of World War II in England, at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, he began his teaching career at the Royal College of Aeronautics. Subsequently he moved to universities in Canada, Israel, and finally the United States. A joint appointment in mathematics and philosophy at UCLA led to a position at Yale University, where Robinson served as Sterling Professor of Mathematics until his untimely death at the age of fifty-five.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD	ix	(4)
Benoit B. Mandelbrot
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xiii
CHAPTER ONE. Family and Childhood: Germany 1918-1933	3	(30)
CHAPTER TWO. Life in Palestine: 1933-1939	33	(26)
CHAPTER THREE. Robinson in Paris: January-June 1940	59	(32)
CHAPTER FOUR. Robinson and the War: London 1940-1946	91	(40)
CHAPTER FIVE. Robinson after the War: London 1946-1951	131	(54)
CHAPTER SIX. The University of Toronto: 1951-1957	185	(58)
CHAPTER SEVEN. The Hebrew University: Jerusalem 1957-1962	243	(62)
CHAPTER EIGHT. UCLA and Nonstandard Analysis: 1962-1967	305	(98)
CHAPTER NINE. Robinson Joins the Ivy League: Yale University 1967-1974	403	(88)
EPILOGUE. Abraham Robinson: The Man and His Mathematics	491	(4)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	495	(42)
INDEX	537