Hans Lewy

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hans Lewy
several complex variables
Doctoral advisorRichard Courant[2]
Doctoral studentsDavid Kinderlehrer

Hans Lewy (20 October 1904 – 23 August 1988) was an American

theory of functions of several complex variables.[3]

Life

Lewy was born to a

Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition originated from that time in 1928.[4][5]

At the recommendation of Courant, Lewy was granted a

Hitler's election as chancellor in 1933, Lewy was advised by Herbert Busemann to leave Germany again. He was offered a position in Madrid, but declined it, fearing for the future there under Francisco Franco. He revisited Italy and France, but then at the invitation of the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars and with the assistance of Hadamard found a two-year position in America at Brown University. At the end of that term, in 1935, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley.[4][5]

During World War II, Lewy obtained a pilot's license, but then worked at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. He married Helen Crosby in 1947.[5]

In 1950, Lewy was fired from Berkeley for refusing to sign a loyalty oath.

Tolman v. Underhill.[6][7]

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][8]

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

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.[8]

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. ^ a b Wolf Foundation (2003), THE 1984/5 WOLF FOUNDATION PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS (in Hebrew), retrieved September 14, 2013.
  2. ^ Hans Lewy at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ISBN 9789812811769
    .
  4. ^ a b c Albers, Donald J.; Alexanderson, Gerald L.; Reid, Constance, eds. (1990), "Hans Lewy", More Mathematical People, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 180–194.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-8176-3524-6
    .
  6. ^ a b c d "Dr. Hans Lewy, 83, Mathematics Professor", The New York Times, September 2, 1988
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7876-3939-6
    .
  8. ^
    Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley
    , pp. 85–87.
  9. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1940-07238-6
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hans_Lewy&oldid=1216064360"