Hubert Stanley Wall

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Hubert Stanley Wall
Born(1902-12-02)December 2, 1902
University of Texas
Doctoral advisorEdward Burr Van Vleck
Doctoral studentsDan Mauldin, Coke Reed[1]

Hubert Stanley Wall (December 2, 1902 – September 12, 1971)[2][3] was an American mathematician who worked primarily in the field of continued fractions. He is also known as one of the leading proponents of the Moore method of teaching.

Early life and education

Wall was born in

Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin–Madison) in 1927.[3]

He married Mary Kate Parker, a lawyer and Texas assistant Attorney General. Her specialty was election law.

Career

Upon receiving his

Most of Wall's mathematical research was in various aspects of the analytic theory of

Wall polynomials
after him.

While at Northwestern he started a collaboration with Ernst Hellinger, and he was very interested in Hellinger integrals throughout his career, but did publish anything on them.[3][4]: 235  [5]

While at Texas Wall was a prominent practitioner of the Moore method of teaching. John Parker wrote, "Wall had long ago thrown himself wholeheartedly into the Moore tradition, with his own interpretation of the Moore method, and there was a good deal of cross pollination of students through their courses, some steered to the PhD by Moore and others by Wall and [Hyman J.] Ettlinger. Between them, they continued to dominate PhD guidance in Pure Mathematics throughout the 1950s and 1960s."[4]: 285  The University of Texas memorial to Wall suggests that he may have picked up some of these ideas at Northwestern from Van Vleck and Hellinger and says, "Since there were already people on the Texas faculty who had used innovative techniques (chiefly Robert Lee Moore and some of his colleagues), Wall tried their methods. For him and for his students it was an unqualified success."[3]: 3 

Wall had 66 doctoral students, 61 at the University of Texas.[6]

Wall died in Austin on September 12, 1971.[2]

Selected publications

  • Wall, H. S. (2000) [1948]. Analytic Theory of Continued Fractions. Providence: American Mathematical Society.
  • Wall, H. S. (1969) [1963]. Creative Mathematics. Univ of Texas Press. .

Notes

  1. ^ "Hubert Wall - the Mathematics Genealogy Project".
  2. ^ a b c "Wall, Hubert Stanley". Who Was Who in America. Vol. V. Marquis Who's Who. 1973. pp. 752.
    OCLC 13864526
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f "In Memoriam Hubert Stanley Wall" (PDF). Memorial Resolutions and Biographical Sketches. University of Texas at Austin Faculty Council. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  4. ^ a b c Parker, John (2005). R. L. Moore: Mathematician and Teacher. Mathematical Association of America.
    OCLC 57533062
    .
  5. ^ . University of Texas. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  6. ^ Hubert Stanley Wall – MGP
  7. .

External links