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George David Birkhoff
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American mathematician (1884-1944)
OverviewAI-generated
George David Birkhoff was an American mathematician, topologist, and university teacher. He was educated at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, earning a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts, and a Doctor of Philosophy. His doctoral advisor was Eliakim Hastings Moore, and he was influenced by Henri Poincaré. Birkhoff taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Princeton University, and Harvard University. His student was Harry Vandiver.
Birkhoff’s field of work included topology, mathematics, ergodic theory, and the three-body problem. His notable works include the ergodic theorem, Birkhoff's theorem, the Poincaré–Birkhoff theorem, and the Birkhoff–Grothendieck theorem. He received the Bôcher Memorial Prize and the Newcomb Cleveland Prize. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Born in Overisel Township in 1884, Birkhoff died in Cambridge in 1944. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. His child was Garrett Birkhoff.
Synthesized by Vinony from 31 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, VIAF, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Authority record · VIAF
- Lifespan
- 1884–1944
- Nationality
- US
- Role / Field
- Matematycy, Vysokoskolsti ucitele, Matematici, Matematyka, Teorie cisel, Problem tri teles
- Language
- eng
- Gender
- Male
Recorded by 18 libraries
via VIAF · OCLC
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1884-03-21 ) March 21, 1884, Overisel Township, Michigan , U.S.
- Died
- November 12, 1944 (1944-11-12) (aged 60), Cambridge, Massachusetts , U.S.
- Alma mater
- Harvard University ( AB , AM ), University of Chicago ( PhD )
- Known for
- Ergodic theorem , Birkhoff's axioms
- Awards
- Bôcher Memorial Prize (1923) , Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1926)
- Fields
- Mathematics
- Institutions
- Harvard University, Yale University , Princeton University , Radcliffe College
- Thesis
- Asymptotic Properties of Certain Ordinary Differential Equations with Applications to Boundary Value and Expansion Problems (1907)
- Doctoral advisor
- E. H. Moore
- Doctoral students
- Clarence Adams , Raymond Brink , Robert D. Carmichael , Bernard Koopman , Rudolph Langer , Charles Morrey , Marston Morse , G. Baley Price , I. M. Sheffer , Marshall H. Stone , Joseph L. Walsh , Hassler Whitney , David Widder , Kenneth Williams
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Overisel Township
- Place of death
- Cambridge
- Occupation
- university teacher
- Educated at
- University of Chicago
- Employer
- University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Academic degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Doctoral advisor
- Eliakim Hastings Moore
- Field of work
- number theory
- Image
- George David Birkhoff.gif
Show 12 more facts
- student
- Harry Vandiver
- birth name
- George David Birkhoff
- place of burial
- Mount Auburn Cemetery
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
- Commons category
- George David Birkhoff
- date of birth
- 1884-03-21
- date of death
- 1944-11-12
- member of
- Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
- Erdős number
- 3
- influenced by
- Henri Poincaré
- P8168
- USS Normandy
- name in native language
- George David Birkhoff
Sources (6)
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
George David Birkhoff (March 21, 1884 – November 12, 1944) was an American mathematician. He is considered one of the top American mathematicians of his generation. He made valuable contributions to the theory of differential equations, dynamical systems, the four-color problem, the three-body problem, and general relativity. Today, Birkhoff is best remembered for the ergodic theorem. The George D. Birkhoff House, his residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “George David Birkhoff” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.