Marshall Harvey Stone | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 8, 1903 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | January 9, 1989(1989-01-09) (aged 85) |
| Education | Harvard University (BA,PhD) |
| Known for | Stone duality Stone space Stone's theorem on one-parameter unitary groups Stone's representation theorem for Boolean algebras Stone–von Neumann theorem Stone–Čech compactification Stone–Weierstrass theorem Banach–Stone theorem Glivenko–Stone theorem |
| Awards | National Medal of Science (1982) Gibbs Lecture (1956) ICM Speaker (1936) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Real analysis,Functional analysis,Boolean algebra,Topology |
| Institutions | Harvard University University of Chicago University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| Thesis | Ordinary Linear Homogeneous Differential Equations of Order n and the Related Expansion Problems (1926) |
| Doctoral advisor | G. D. Birkhoff |
| Doctoral students | |
Marshall Harvey Stone (April 8, 1903 – January 9, 1989) was an American mathematician who contributed toreal analysis,functional analysis,topology and the study ofBoolean algebras.
Stone was the son ofHarlan Fiske Stone, who was theChief Justice of the United States in 1941–1946. Marshall Stone's family expected him to become a lawyer like his father, but he became enamored of mathematics while he was an undergraduate atHarvard University, where he was a classmate of future judgeHenry Friendly. He completed aPhD there in 1926, with a thesis ondifferential equations that was supervised byGeorge David Birkhoff.[1] Between 1925 and 1937, he taught at Harvard,Yale University, andColumbia University. Stone was promoted to a full professor at Harvard in 1937.
DuringWorld War II, Stone did classified research as part of the "Office of Naval Operations" and the "Office of the Chief of Staff" of theUnited States Department of War. In 1946, he became the chairman of the Mathematics Department at theUniversity of Chicago, a position that he held until 1952. While chairman, Stone hired several notable mathematicians includingPaul Halmos,André Weil,Saunders Mac Lane,Antoni Zygmund, andShiing-Shen Chern. He remained on the faculty at this university until 1968, after which he taught at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst until 1980.
In 1989, Stone died inMadras, India (now referred to as Chennai), due to a stroke. Following his death, many mathematicians praised Stone for his contributions to various mathematical fields. For instance, University of Massachusetts Amherst mathematician Larry Mann claimed that "Professor Stone was one of the greatest American mathematicians of this century," while Mac Lane described how Stone made the University of Chicago mathematics department the "best department in mathematics in the country in that period."[2]
Stone made several advances in the 1930s:
Stone was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1933 and theNational Academy of Sciences (United States) in 1938.[3][4] He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1943.[5] He presided over theAmerican Mathematical Society, 1943–44, and theInternational Mathematical Union, 1952–54. In 1982, he was awarded theNational Medal of Science.[6]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) (50 pages)