Mischa Cotlar

Mischa Cotlar (* 1913 in Sarny , Ukraine ; † January 16, 2007 in Buenos Aires , Argentina ) was an Argentine mathematician and university professor. His contributions to mathematics are in the areas of harmonic analysis , ergodic theory and spectral theory . In 1955 he proved the original version of the Cotlar –Stein –Lemma .

life and work

In 1928 his family emigrated to Montevideo , Uruguay . His father taught him math, chess and music as he could only get an education for one school year. He was a good pianist and made a living playing the piano in bars. The Uruguayan mathematician Rafael Laguardia recognized his mathematical skills, invited him to seminars in his house, which gave him access to the best mathematical library in the city, and got him a job as a pianist in a chamber music trio. In 1934 he heard a lecture by the Spanish mathematician Julio Rey Pastor , which prompted him to follow this to Argentina. There the mathematician JC Vignaux recommended him as a private tutor for mathematics and introduced him to the theory of analytical functions. In 1937 he met a Russian student of Ray Pastor, Yanny Frenkel, and married her the following year. Thanks to a Guggenheim scholarship, he was able to do his doctorate at the University of Chicago with Antoni Zygmund in 1953 and was now appointed director of the Mathematical Institute of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo with an academic degree on his return to Argentina . From 1958 to 1966 he was a full professor at the University of Buenos Aires, then until 1971 professor at Rutgers University . In 1972 he returned to Argentina with his wife and initiated a collaboration with Cora Sadosky . In 1974 the Cotlars returned to Caracas , Venezuela and he started a research group in analysis . His doctoral students included Cora Ratto de Sadosky in 1959 and Rodrigo Arocena in 1979 . He was visiting professor at the University of Chicago , Nice (France), Washington University in St. Louis , Missouri , Dartmouth College (USA), Howard University (USA), the University of Uruguay and the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima , Peru . In 1989 he gave Toeplitz Lecture # 6s at the University of Tel Aviv .

Political and social engagement

He was a member of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales of Argentina. From 1956 to 1966 he dealt intensively with international politics and the movement for the social responsibility of scientists. In 1961 he founded the Sociedad Argentina por la Resposabilidad Social de la Ciencia with Cora Ratto de Sadosky and Mario Bunge . In 1962, at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm , he brought with him the letter from Bertrand Russell calling on mathematicians not to cooperate with the military establishment. In 1964 he edited the newspaper Columna 10 with Cora Ratto de Sadosky and Francisco Bullrich, which analyzed the effects of science and technology on international politics. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Fundación Alberto Einstein, which supported talented students at the School of Sciences at the Universidad de Buenos Aires .

Publications (selection)

Aritmética abstracta, Boletín de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Montevideo, Uruguay, 1937
Teoría de anágenos, An. Soc. Ci. Argentina, 127, 1939
Familias normales de funciones no analíticas, An. Soc. Ci. Argentina 129, 1940
Un método para obtener congruencias de números de Bernoulli, Math. Notae 7, 1947
A combinatorial inequality and its application to L2 spaces, Math. Cuyana, 1, 1955
Convolution Operators and Factorization, McGill Analysis Seminar, McGill University, Montreal, 1972
On The Foundation Of The Ergodic Theory, Actas Symposia, UNESCO, 1951

Awards (selection)

1964: Waissman DJG Prize from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas of Argentina
1950: Academia de Ciencias Prize of Spain (1950).
1984: Premio Nacional de Ciencias of Venezuela (1984)
Honorary professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Universidad Nacional de La Plata
since 1987: Member of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales
2013: Konex Award - Science and Technology Post Mortem

literature

Horváth, John: "Encounters with Mischa Cotlar", Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 56 (5), pp. 616-620, 2009, ISSN 0002-9920
Zygmund, A .: [1935], Trigonometric series. Vol. I, II, Cambridge Mathematical Library (3rd ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-521-89053-3

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Cotlar, Misha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Argentine mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	1913
PLACE OF BIRTH	Buenos Aires , Argentina
DATE OF DEATH	January 16, 2007
Place of death	Buenos Aires , Argentina