Vera Pless

Vera Pless (born March 5, 1931 in Chicago , Illinois - † March 2, 2020 in Oak Park , Illinois) was an American mathematician who was one of the leading experts in error-correcting codes .

Pless was the daughter of Jewish emigrants from Russia and was originally called Vera Stepen. Initially she wanted to be a classical musician (cello), but was urged by her father at a young age to study mathematics at the University of Chicago , where she was particularly influenced by Irving Kaplansky . She completed her master's degree in 1952 and in the same year married a fellow student who was studying physics and becoming an experimental particle physicist. She did her PhD in 1957 at Northwestern University with Alex Rosenberg ( The continuous transformation ring of biorthogonal bases spaces ). After having her second child, she taught at Boston University , near her husband's place of work at MIT , but devoted herself primarily to her children.

From 1963 to 1972 she worked as a mathematician on error-correcting codes at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts . In addition to fundamental work on error-correcting codes, she also published on ring theory.

After the US Department of Defense had restricted basic research, she continued research at MIT in 1972 and became a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1975 . She was a fellow of the American Mathematical Society .

Fonts

Introduction to the theory of error-correcting codes , Wiley 1982, 2nd edition 1989
with W. Cary Huffman: Fundamentals of error correcting codes , Cambridge University Press 2003
with Huffman, Richard A. Brualdi : Handbook of coding theory , North Holland 1998
with Janet Beissinger: Crypto Club. Using mathematics to make and break secret codes , AK Peters 2006

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Pless, Vera
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	March 5, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH	March 2nd 2020
Place of death	Oak Park , Illinois