My Mathematical Heritage
For this week's topic I thought I'd discuss how I can trace my mathematical heritage to Daniel Bernoulli, of thermodynamics fame. I just thought that you might find it interesting that "in a sense" I am related to this illustrious family of mathematicians, as I explain below.
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Bernoullis/RouseBall/RB_Bernoullis.html
The Bernoullis were a family of Swiss mathematicians. The family was originally from Holland but was driven out by Spanish persecution and settled in Switzerland. The eldest Bernoulli was Jacob. He studied mathematics with the famous mathematician Gottlieb Wilhelm Leibniz (who received his Ph.D. in 1666). Leibniz was one of the cofounders of Calculus, along with Sir Isaac Newton. Jacob never received a Ph.D., but became Chair of the mathematics department at the University of Baile in 1687, where he remained until his death in 1705.
His younger brother, John, studied with Jacob and received his Ph.D. in 1694. He then was Chair of the mathematics department at University of Groningen from 1695 to 1705, and then succeeded Jacob as Chair at University of Baile from 1705 to 1748. The "younger" Bernoullis, sons of John, were Daniel, Nicholas and John the Younger. Daniel wrote the Hydrodynamique in 1738.
One of the students of John (the Elder) was the famous mathematician Leonard Euler,who received his Ph.D. in 1726. This mathematical heritage was passed down from generation to generation over the next two and a half centuries until "modern times". My thesis advisor's advisor was the famous mathematician Steve Smale, and his mathematical geneology can be traced back to Leibniz and the Bernoullis through Euler. Smale received his Ph.D. in 1957 at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He received the Fields Medal in 1966 in Moscow (the Fields medal is the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize.) In the 1960's Smale developed the modern theory of Dynamical Systems, an offshoot of the study of differential equations.
One of Smale's many students at the University of California at Berkeley was my thesis advisor, Sheldon Newhouse, who received his Ph.D. in 1967. Newhouse established a small, elite group of dynamical systems specialists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1970's. I studied there with Sheldon from 1977 to 1984 when I received my Ph.D. in Chaos Theory and Fractals. So, in a sense, I am related to the Bernoullis, at least mathematically. I apologize if I've bored you.
BTW, in addition to mathematics, I find history and geneology to be fascinating. I've traced my roots back to Ireland and spent a January several years ago traveling about Ireland visiting the locations where my ancestors lived. The previous year I traveled about upstate New York visiting the locations where my ancestors settled in America in the early 19th Century.
Cheers,
Frank "Sully" |
