List of Jewish American mathematicians

This is a list of notable Jewish American mathematicians. For other Jewish Americans, see Lists of Jewish Americans.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by editing the page to add missing items, with references to reliable sources.

Yakov Eliashberg

Charles Fefferman

Michael Freedman

Sergiu Klainerman

Peter Lax

Elias M. Stein

Edward Witten

• Abraham Adrian Albert (1905–1972), abstract algebra ^[1]
• Kenneth Appel (1932–2013), four-color problem ^{[2] [ unreliable source? ]}
• Lipman Bers (1914–1993), non-linear elliptic equations ^[3]
• Paul Cohen (1934–2007), set theorist; Fields Medal (1966) ^[4]
• Jesse Douglas (1897–1965), mathematician; Fields Medal (1936), Bôcher Memorial Prize (1943) ^[5]
• Samuel Eilenberg (1913–1988), category theory; Wolf Prize (1986), Steele Prize (1987) ^[6]
• Yakov Eliashberg (born 1946), symplectic topology and partial differential equations ^[7]
• Charles Fefferman (born 1949), mathematician; Fields Medal (1978), Bôcher Prize (2008) ^{[7] [8] [9]}
• William Feller (1906–1970), probability theory ^[10]
• Michael Freedman (born 1951), mathematician; Fields Medal (1986) ^{[7] [ unreliable source? ]}
• Hillel Furstenberg (born 1935), mathematician; Wolf Prize (2006/07), Abel Prize (2020) ^{[11] [12]}
• Michael Golomb (1909–2008), theory of approximation ^[13]
• Michael Harris (born 1954), mathematician ^[14]
• E. Morton Jellinek (1890–1963), biostatistician ^[15]
• Edward Kasner (1878–1955), mathematician ^[16]
• Sergiu Klainerman (born 1950), hyperbolic differential equations and general relativity; MacArthur Fellow (1991), Guggenheim Fellow (1997), Bôcher Memorial Prize(1999) ^[7]
• Cornelius Lanczos (1893–1974), mathematician and mathematical physicist ^[17]
• Peter Lax (1926–2025), mathematician; Wolf Prize (1987), Steele Prize (1993), Abel Prize (2005) ^[18]
• Tom Lehrer (1928–2025), mathematician, humorist and songwriter
• Emma Lehmer (1906–2007), mathematician ^[19]
• Grigory Margulis (born 1946), mathematician; Fields Medal (1978), Wolf Prize (2005), Abel Prize (2020) ^[12]
• Barry Mazur (born 1937), mathematician; Cole Prize (1982), Chern Medal (2022) ^[20]
• John von Neumann (1903–1957), mathematician ^[21]
• Ken Ribet (born 1948), algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry ^[7]
• Peter Sarnak (born 1953), analytic number theory; Pólya Prize (1998), Cole Prize (2005), Wolf Prize (2014) ^[7]
• Yakov Sinai (born 1935), dynamical systems; Wolf Prize (1997), Steele Prize (2013), Abel Prize (2014) ^[7]
• Isadore Singer (1924–2021), mathematician; Bôcher Prize (1969), Steele Prize (2000), Abel Prize (2004) ^[7]
• Robert M. Solovay (born 1938), mathematician; Paris Kanellakis Award (2003) ^[7]
• Elias Stein (1931–2018), harmonic analysis; Wolf Prize (1999), Steele Prize (2002) ^[22]
• Edward Witten (born 1951), theoretical physics; Fields Medal (1990) ^[23]

See also

• List of Jewish mathematicians

References

1. "A. A. Albert", D. Zelinsky, The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 80, No. 6 (Jun. - Jul., 1973), pp. 661-665: "He was the son of a Jewish family that came to America from England"
2. "Jewish Computer & Information Scientists".
3. "Lipman Bers - Biography".
4. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Paul Joseph Cohen", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive , University of St Andrews Paul Cohen's parents, Abraham and Minnie Cohen, were Jewish immigrants to the United States from their native land of Poland.
5. Peter Lax, Mathematician: An Illustrated Memoir, by Reuben Hersh (American Mathematical Soc. 2014), page 102
6. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Samuel Eilenberg", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive , University of St Andrews
7. "Jewish Mathematicians". Jinfo.org. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
8. The Jewish lists: physicists and generals, actors and writers, and hundreds of other lists of accomplished Jews, Martin Harry Greenberg, Schocken, 1979, page 110
9. American Jewish Year Book 2017: The Annual Record of the North American Jewish Communities, Arnold Dashefsky, Ira M. Sheskin, (Springer, 2018), page 796
10. "Mathematicians under the Nazis" by Prof Sanford Segal of the University of Rochester (Princeton University Press, 2003, p460): "...Tornier had collaborated with Willi Feller (who was Jewish)..."
11. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Hillel Furstenberg", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive , University of St Andrews
12. Castelvecchi, Davide (March 18, 2020). "Mathematics pioneers who found order in chaos win Abel prize". Nature . doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00799-7.
13. "Holocaust survivors tell oral histories in 'Bitter Prerequisites'". Purdue News. March 2001.
14. Harris, Michael (2015). Mathematics without apologies : portrait of a problematic vocation. Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-1-4008-5202-4. OCLC   900080550.
15. "Ranes Report".
16. Columbia University Archived 2012-12-21 at the Wayback Machine : "Edward Kasner (CCNY 1897; CU MA, 1897; PhD 1900) appointed Tutor on Mathematics Department; first Jew appointed to faculty position in sciences. The 4th of Low's 4 Jewish appointments." Accessed 5 May 2007.
17. "Lanczos biography". Archived from the original on February 10, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
18. Peter Lax, Britannica.com.
19. "05.11.2007 - Mathematician Emma Lehmer dies at 100".
20. "Jewish Recipients of the Frank Nelson Cole Prizes in Algebra and Number Theory". Jinfo.org. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
21. "John von Neumann - Biography".
22. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Elias Menachem Stein", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive , University of St Andrews
23. Witten biography - MacTutor History of Mathematics