Ellis Kolchin

Ellis Robert Kolchin (born April 18, 1916 in New York City , † October 30, 1991 there ) was an American mathematician.

Kolchin studied at Columbia University , where he received his doctorate from Joseph Ritt in 1941 (On the Exponents of Differential Ideals, Annals of Mathematics 1941), but had previously published with Ritt. During World War II, he worked for the US Navy Secret Service in Washington, DC and the Pacific. Then he was back at Columbia University, where he became a professor, where he retired in 1986, but also continued research afterwards. Among other things, he was visiting scholar at the Sorbonne (1954/55 as Guggenheim Fellow) and the University of Paris (1960/61), at the Institute for Advanced Study , at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and at the RIMS in Kyoto . In 1965 he lectured in the Soviet Union, relieved by the fact that he was fluent in Russian.

Like his teacher Ritt, he dealt with algebraic theory of differential equations and differential algebra, especially the Galois theory of bodies of differentials. He was considered an authority in the field of differential algebra and led a seminar at Columbia University for 30 years.

He had been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1976 . In 1975 he was a Colloquium Lecturer at the American Mathematical Society . In 1966 he was invited speaker at the ICM in Moscow (Some problems in differential algebra).

Fonts

• Differential algebra and algebraic groups, Academic Press 1973
• Differential algebraic groups, Academic Press 1985
• Hyman Bass , Alexandru Buium , Phyllis Cassidy: Selected Works of Ellis Kolchin with Commentary, American Mathematical Society 1999

literature

• Bass, Cassidy, Kovacic (Editor): Contributions to Algebra. A collection of papers dedicated to Ellis Kolchin, Academic Press 1977

Web links

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