Robert Creighton Buck

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Robert Creighton Buck (born August 30, 1920 in Cincinnati , † February 1, 1998 in Wisconsin ; mostly R. Creighton Buck ) was an American mathematician who dealt with analysis.

Buck studied at the University of Cincinnati and received his PhD from Harvard University in 1947 with David Widder and Ralph Boas (Uniqueness, Interpolation and Characterization Theorems for Functions of Exponential Type). He was then three years Assistant Professor at Brown University and from 1950 Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin , where he became a professor in 1954. In 1980 he became "Hilldale Professor" there and from 1964 to 1966 he was chairman of the mathematics faculty. In 1990 he retired, but remained active as a mathematician.

Buck dealt with approximation theory , function theory , topological algebra and operations research . In the latter area he also worked for the Institute for Defense Analyzes for six years . Buck wrote a textbook on real analysis called "Advanced Calculus" which is very popular in the USA. He also studied mathematics history - for his essay "Sherlock Holmes in Babylon" on Babylonian mathematics he received the Lester Randolph Ford Award . The well-known mathematician Thomas W. Hawkins is one of his doctoral students .

Boas-Buck polynomials are named after him and Ralph Boas .

Buck was vice president of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), whose "Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics" (CUPM) he founded and chaired from 1959 to 1963. In 1962 he gave a lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm ( Global solutions of differential equations ).

Buck was also a gifted pianist who won a composition competition when he was eighteen. He published several science fiction stories.

Fonts

  • Advanced Calculus, McGraw Hill, New York 1956, 3rd edition, Waveland Pr., 2003
  • with Ralph Boas: Polynomial expansions of analytic functions, Springer 1958, 2nd edition, Academic Press, Springer 1964
  • with Ellen F. Buck: Introduction to differential equations, Boston, Houghton Mifflin 1978
  • with Alfred Willcox: Calculus of several variables, Houghton Mifflin 1971
  • Buck “Sherlock Holmes in Babylon”, AMM 1980

Web links

References

  1. American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 87, 1980, pp. 335-345. Reprinted in Marlow Anderson, Victor Katz, Robin Wilson (editors) "Sherlock Holmes in Babylon and other tales of mathematical history", MAA 2004
  2. ^ Boas, Buck Polynomial expansions of analytic functions , Springer 1958