Ralph Abraham (mathematician)

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Ralph Abraham

Ralph Herman Abraham (born July 4, 1936 in Burlington , Vermont ) is an American mathematician who deals with the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations, analysis on manifolds and the mathematical foundations of mechanics ( chaos theory ) and general relativity .

Abraham graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in 1956 and a master's degree in 1958 and received his doctorate there in 1960 under Nathan Coburn ( Discontinuities in General Relativity ). As a post-doctoral student he was a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and 1962/63 for the Office of Naval Research at Columbia University , where he became an assistant professor in 1963 . In 1964 he became an assistant professor at Princeton University and an associate professor in 1968 and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1980 . Among other things, he was visiting scholar in Amsterdam, Paris, Warwick, Barcelona, ​​Basel and Florence.

In the mid-1970s he founded the Visual Math Institute (which got its current name in 1990) in Santa Cruz and he was active in presentations of mathematics along with music and visual arts (since 1992, with Ami Radunskaya, Peter Broadwell).

He is known for an early textbook on mechanics from a mathematical point of view (Foundations of Mechanics). He advised on applications of chaos theory in a wide variety of areas and holds lectures and seminars on chaos theory worldwide. He also wrote some books on chaos theory and philosophical issues (some with Rupert Sheldrake and Terence McKenna ). He is affiliated with the intellectual group Lindisfarne Association of William Irwin Thompson . With Thompson he is also involved in shaping the teaching of the Ross School.

Abraham is editor of World Futures and the Journal of Bifurcations and Chaos . He has been married since 1958 and has two children.

Fonts

  • Foundations of Mechanics, Benjamin 1967, 2nd edition with Jerrold Marsden
  • with Joel Robbin : Transversal mappings and flow, Benjamin 1967
  • Linear and multilinear algebra, Benjamin 1967
  • with Marsden, Tudor Ratiu Manifolds, tensor analysis and applications , Addison-Wesley 1983, 1988
  • with Christopher D. Shaw Dynamics, geometry and behavior , 4 volumes, Aerial Press 1982 to 1988, 2nd edition Addison-Wesley 1992
    • Volume 1 Periodic Behavior, Volume 2 Chaotic Behavior, Volume 3 Global Behavior, Volume 4 Bifurcation Behavior
  • with Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake Trialogues at the Edge of the West: chaos, creativity and the resacralization of the world , Santa Fe: Bear, 1992
    • German translation: Thinking on the edge of the unthinkable: about order and chaos, physics and metaphysics, ego and world soul , Piper Verlag 1997
  • with McKenna, Sheldrake The evolutionary mind: conversations on science, imagination and spirit , 1998, 2nd edition Monkfish Book Publ. 2005
  • Chaos, Gaia, Eros: A Chaos Pioneer Uncovers the Three Great Streams of History 1994, Epigraph Publishing 2011
  • with McKenna, Sheldrake Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness , Park Street Press 2001
  • with Frank Jas, Willard Russell The web empowerment book: an introduction and connection guide to the Internet and the World-Wide Web , Springer Verlag 1995
  • Editor with Yoshisuke Ueda The Chaos Avant-garde , World Scientific 2000 (memories of the early years of chaos theory with contributions by Floris Takens , Otto E. Rössler , Edward N. Lorenz , TY Li, Stephen Smale , James Yorke , Ueda, Abraham, Christia Mira )
  • with Laura Gardini, Christian Mira Chaos in discrete dynamical systems: a visual introduction in 2 dimensions , Springer Verlag 1997
  • with Sisir Roy Demystifying the Akasha: Consciousness and the Quantum Vacuum , Epigraph Publishing 2010

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Life data according to American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ^ Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ Visual Math Institute
  4. In the 1960s he was close to the hippie movement, Abraham: Hip Santa Cruz History Project
  5. ^ Ross School