Abraham H. Taub

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Abraham Taub
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
University of California, Berkeley
Thesis Quantum Equations in Cosmological Space[2]  (1935)
Doctoral advisorHoward P. Robertson
Doctoral studentsC. William Gear
Gene Golub

Abraham Haskel Taub (/tɔːb/; February 1, 1911 – August 9, 1999) was a distinguished American mathematician and physicist who made important contributions to the early development of general relativity, as well as differential geometry and differential equations.

Work

Taub graduated in 1931 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the

WWII,[3] and was also influenced by Oswald Veblen. After a postdoctoral year at the Institute for Advanced Study, Taub became an assistant professor at the University of Washington
in Seattle.

In a 1948 paper dealing with relativistic shock waves, Taub introduced a relativistic generalization of the Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions across a shock, which is now known as the Taub Adiabat. He also introduced the Taub–NUT space in general relativity.

In 1948, Abe Taub went to the University of Illinois as the chief mathematician associated with a project to build a computer based on von Neumann's plans. The computer, called ORDVAC, was completed in 1952 and delivered to the Aberdeen Proving Ground. A second copy of the computer, ILLIAC I, remained at Illinois and was the prototype for several other computers. Taub was head of the Digital Computer Laboratory at Illinois from 1961 until 1964, when he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, as director of the Computer Center (1964–68) with a joint appointment in the department of mathematics. He was a full time professor of mathematics from 1967 to 1978, when he retired as professor emeritus.[2]

Upon his death he was survived by his widow, three children, and a grandchild.[2]

References

  1. ^ "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. (search on year 1941 and institution University of Washington)
  2. ^ a b c "In Memoriam: Abraham Haskel Taub, Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, Berkeley, 1911–1999". Academic Senate, University of California.
  3. S2CID 120610589
    .
  4. .

External links