Alexander Weinstein

1930 in Jena

Alexander Weinstein (born January 21, 1897 in Saratow , † January 6, 1979 in Washington, DC ) was an American mathematician who dealt with mathematical problems of mechanics.

Weinstein first studied in Astrakhan with the aim of becoming an astronomer , then at the University of Würzburg and in 1913/14 at the University of Göttingen . In 1921 he received his doctorate from the ETH Zurich under Hermann Weyl . In 1922 he was an assistant at the University of Leipzig , taught at the University of Wales and was in 1926/27 with Tullio Levi-Civita at the University of Rome as a Rockefeller scholarship holder. In 1927 he was back in Zurich as Weyl's assistant, in 1928 at the University of Hamburg and in the same year at the University of Breslau . In 1933 he was supposed to work with Albert Einstein in Berlin, but this was prevented when the National Socialists came to power. As a Jew he had to leave Germany and in 1934 went to Paris to the Collège de France , where he worked with Jacques Hadamard . In 1937 he received his doctorate there again. In 1940 he went to the USA, where he was at various universities, including at times at the University of Toronto . During World War II he was in George David Birkhoff's research group at Harvard University . After all, he was a research professor at the Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Maryland for eighteen years . In 1967 he retired there, but remained scientifically active at Georgetown University .

He dealt with boundary value problems of partial differential equations from hydrodynamics and electrodynamics , for example in the 1920s he treated the beam problem of hydrodynamics in a strict manner, developed a generalized theory of axially symmetric potentials and gave limits for eigenvalues ​​of the vibrations of plates and membranes

literature

• Maximilian Pinl Colleagues in a Dark Time , Annual Report DMV, Volume 71, 1969, p. 211
• JB Diaz (Editor) Alexander Weinstein. Selecta , Pitman, London 1978

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Alexander Weinstein. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander Weinstein in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)
2. ↑ Weinstein Generalized axially symmetric potential theory , Bulletin AMS, Volume 59, 1953, pp. 20-38
3. ↑ Nathan Aronszajn, Weinstein Existence, convergence and equivalence in the unified theory of eigenvalues ​​of plates and membranes , Proc. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA, Vol. 27, 1941, pp. 188-191. Aronszajn, Weinstein On the unified theory of eigenvalues ​​of plates and membranes , Amer. J. Math., Vol. 64, 1942, pp. 623-645