Julian Coolidge

Julian Lowell Coolidge (September 28, 1873 – March 5, 1954) was an American mathematician, historian, a professor and chairman of the Harvard University Mathematics Department.^[1]

Biography

Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard University and Oxford University.^[1]

Between 1897 and 1899, Julian Coolidge taught at the

Coolidge returned to teach at Harvard where he was awarded a full professorship. In 1927 he was appointed chairman of the Mathematics Department at Harvard,[1] a position he held until his retirement in 1940. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,^[3] Coolidge served as president of the Mathematical Association of America and vice-president of the American Mathematical Society.^[1][4] He authored several books on mathematics and on the history of mathematics. He was Master of Lowell House (one of Harvard's undergraduate residences) from 1930 to 1940.^[5]

Coolidge died in 1954 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 80.^[1]

Writings

• J. L. Coolidge (1909) The elements of non-Euclidean geometry, Oxford University Press.
• J. L. Coolidge (1916) A Treatise on the Circle and the Sphere, Oxford University Press.^[6]
• J. L. Coolidge (1924) The geometry of the complex domain,
  The Clarendon Press
  .
• J. L. Coolidge (1925) An introduction to mathematical probability, Oxford University Press.
• J. L. Coolidge (1931) A Treatise on Algebraic Plane Curves, Oxford University Press (Dover Publications 2004).
• J. L. Coolidge (1940) A history of geometrical methods,^[7] Oxford University Press (Dover Publications 2003).
• J. L. Coolidge (1945) History of the conic sections and quadric surfaces,
  The Clarendon Press.^[8]
• J. L. Coolidge (1949) The Mathematics Of Great Amateurs, Oxford University Press (Dover Publications 1963).

See also

• Commandino's theorem
• Projective range
• Screw theory
• Spieker circle

References