Thomas W. Hawkins Jr.

Tom Hawkins
Born	Thomas William Hawkins Jr. (1938-01-10) January 10, 1938 (age 87) Flushing, New York, U.S.
Died	December 10, 2024(2024-12-10) (aged 86)
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin-Madison
Awards	Chauvenet Prize (1997) [1] Albert Leon Whiteman Memorial Prize (2001) [2]
Scientific career
Fields	History of mathematics
Institutions	Boston University
Doctoral advisor	Robert Creighton Buck [3]

Thomas W. Hawkins Jr. (January 10, 1938 - December 10, 2024 ^[4] ) was an American historian of mathematics.

Hawkins defended his Ph.D. thesis on "The Origins and Early Development of Lebesgue's Theory of Integration" at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968 under Robert Creighton Buck. From 1972 until his death he was based at Boston University. Hawkins was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1974 at Vancouver ^[5] and in 1986 at Berkeley. ^[6]

In 1997 Hawkins was awarded the Chauvenet Prize for his article "The birth of Lie's theory of groups", ^[7] published in the Mathematical Intelligencer in 1994. ^[1] In fall 2012 Hawkins was elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society ^[8] .

Selected publications

Articles

• 1970: "The origins of the theory of group characters", Archive for History of Exact Sciences , 7: 142–170 ISSN   0003-9519 JSTOR   41133320
• 1972: "Hypercomplex numbers, Lie groups and the creation of group representation theory", Archive for History of Exact Sciences 8: 243–287. doi : 10.1007/BF00328434
• 1974: "The Theory of Matrices in the 19th Century", In: Ralph D. James (editor): Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Vancouver, 1974. CMC, Vancouver 1975, vol. 2, ISBN   0-919558-04-6, pp. 561–570.
• 1974: "New light on Frobenius creation of the theory of group characters", Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 12: 217–243. doi : 10.1007/BF00357245
• 1980: "Non-euclidean geometry and Weierstrassian mathematics. The background to Killing's work on Lie algebras", Historia Mathematica 7: 289–342. doi : 10.1016/0315-0860(80)90027-0
• 1982: "Wilhelm Killing and the structure of Lie algebras", Archive for History of Exact Sciences 26: 126–192 doi : 10.1007/BF00348350

Books

• Emergence of the theory of Lie groups. An Essay in the history of Mathematics 1869-1926 (Sources and studies in the history of mathematics and physical series). Springer Verlag, New York 2000, ISBN   0-387-98963-3. ^[9]
• Lebesgue's Theory of Integration. Its Origin and Development. 2nd edition. AMS Chelsea Books, New York 1979, ISBN   0-8284-0282-5; reprint with corrections of original edition published by University of Wisconsin Press 1970; ^[10] reprint of 2nd edition. AMS Chelsea Books. 2001. ISBN   9780821829639.
• The mathematics of Frobenius in context. A journey through 18th to 20th century mathematics. Springer, New York 2013, ISBN   978-1-4614-6332-0. ^[11]

References

1. List of Chauvenet Prize recipients, Mathematical Association of America.
2. 2001 Whiteman Prize (PDF).
3. Tom Hawkins on the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
4. "Thomas Hawkins Obituary - Tucson, AZ". Dignity Memorial. Retrieved December 29, 2025.
5. Hawkins, Thomas. "The theory of matrices in the 19th century" (PDF). In: Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Vancouver, 1974. Vol. 2. pp. 561–570. S2CID   34428017. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 5, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
6. "ICM Plenary and Invited Speakers". International Mathematical Union (IMU). Retrieved November 15, 2022.
7. Hawkins, Thomas W. (1994). "The birth of Lie's theory of groups". Mathematical Intelligencer . 16 (2): 6–17. doi:10.1007/BF03024278. S2CID   123313709.
8. "Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". American Mathematical Society. November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
9. Rowe, David E. (2003). "Book Review: Emergence of the Theory of Lie Groups" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 50 (6): 668–677.
10. Waterhouse, William C. (1972). "Review of Lebesgue's Theory of Integration by Thomas Hawkins; A History of Vector Analysis by Michael J. Crowe; The Development of the Foundations of Mathematical Analysis from Euler to Riemann by I. Grattan-Guinness; Die Genesis des abstrakten Gruppenbegriffes by Hans Wussing". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 78 (3): 385–391. doi: 10.1090/S0002-9904-1972-12909-4 .
11. Roberts, David P. (October 12, 2014). "Review of The mathematics of Frobenius in context". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.