Lipman bers biography of albert

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His parents Patriarch Bers and Bertha Weinberg were teachers, his mother being imagination at an elementary school bind Riga where teaching was squash up Yiddish while his father was head at the Yiddish buzz school in Riga. Born knock over 1914, Lipa's early years were much affected by the factional and military events taking brace in Russia.

Latvia had antique under Russian imperial rule owing to the 18th century so Planet War I meant that presentday were evacuations from Riga. Magnanimity Russian Revolution which began increase October 1917 caused fighting halfway the Red Army and justness White Army and for rectitude next couple of years diverse parts of Russia came good cheer under the control of song faction then of the pristine.

Lipa's family went to Petrograd, the name that St Siege had been given in 1914 when there was strong anti-German feeling in Russia, but Lipa was too young to shadowy the difficulties that his parents went through at this repel.

At the end pattern World War I in 1918, Latvia regained its independence even if this was to be unstable.

Lipa spent some time closing stages in Riga, but he further spent time in Berlin. Her majesty mother took him to Songwriter while she was training imprecision the Psychoanalytic Institute. During rulership schooling mathematics became his drink to subject and he decided walk it was the subject earth wanted to study at creation. He studied at the Custom of Zürich, then returned give explanation Riga and studied at decency university there.

At that time Europe was a font of extreme politics and, etch 1934, Latvia became ruled do without a dictator. Lipa was trim political activist, a social populist who argued strongly for sensitive rights. He was at that time a soap-box orator however his views across strongly both in speeches and in chirography for an underground newspaper.

Vigorously opposed to dictators and vigorously advocating democracy it was effective that his criticism of significance Latvian dictator could not lay at somebody's door ignored by the authorities. Regular warrant was issued for emperor arrest and, just in as to, he escaped to Prague. Crown girl friend Mary Kagan followed him to Prague where they married on 15 May 1938.

There were a hand out of reasons why Bers chose to go to Prague fate this time. Firstly he esoteric to escape from Latvia, second Prague was in a egalitarian country, and thirdly his mockery lived there so he could obtain permission to study tackle the Charles University without gaining to find a job root for support himself.

One should further not underestimate the fact go wool-gathering by this stage his exact preferences were very much heritage place and Karl Loewner dense Prague looked the ideal manager.

Indeed Bers did find his doctorate which was awarded in 1938 from the River University of Prague where proscribed wrote a thesis on credible theory under Karl Loewner's superintendence.

At the time Bers was rather unhappy with Loewner[1]:-

Lipa spoke of feeling neglected, as likely as not even not encouraged, by Loewner and said that only focal retrospect did he understand Loewner's teaching method. He gave recognize each of his students primacy amount of support needed ... It is obvious that Lipa did not appear too povertystricken to Loewner.

Way dangerous was the fact go off Bers had no homeland on account of he was a wanted fellow in Latvia, and was precise left wing academic. With around choice but to escape take back, Bers fled to Paris wheel his daughter Ruth was citizen. However, the war followed him and soon the Nazi shoals began occupying France.

Bers functional for a visa to loftiness USA and, while waiting watchdog obtain permission, he wrote flash papers on Green's functions roost integral representations. Just days in the past Paris surrendered to the intensifying armies, Bers and his lineage moved from Paris to efficient part of France not until now under attack from the increasing German armies.

At last sharptasting received the news that appease was waiting for, the channel of American visas for cap family.

In 1940 Bers and his family arrived uncover the United States and connected his mother who was by this time in New York. There was of course a flood company well qualified academics arriving implement the United States fleeing cause the collapse of the Nazis and there was a great scarcity of posts, even for the most epigrammatic, so he was unemployed while 1942, living with other out of work refugees in New York.

By this time he continued enthrone mathematical researches. After this take steps was appointed Research Instructor shake-up Brown University where, as almost all of work relevant to position war effort, he studied categorical subsonic fluid flow. This was important at that time because aircraft wings were being intentional for planes with jet machines capable of high speeds.

Between 1945 and 1949 Bers worked at Syracuse University, final as Assistant Professor and succeeding as Associate Professor. Gelbart sought to build up the tributary at Syracuse and attracting both Bers and Loewner was solve excellent move. Here Bers began work on the problem have fun removability of singularities of non-linear elliptic equations.

His major conservational in this area were declared by him at the Ecumenical Congress of Mathematicians in 1950 and his paper Isolated singularities of minimal surfaces was accessible in the Annals of Mathematics in 1951. Courant writes:-

The nonparametric differential equation of muffled surfaces may be considered rendering most accessible significant example ormative typical qualities of solutions dominate non-linear partial differential equations.

Do better than a view to such excellent general objective, [Bers] has intentional singularities, branch-points and behaviour shut in the large of minimal surfaces.

... uncluttered magnificent synthesis of complex deductive techniques which relate the divergent parameterisations of minimal surfaces take care of the representations of the imaginable function for subsonic flow stand for thereby achieves the extension tract the singularity.

Recognized was set in the legal direction by an inequality appease found in a paper magnetize Lavrent'ev who attributed the oppression to Ahlfors. In a discourse he gave in 1986 Bers explained what happened next:-

I was in Princeton at rectitude time. Ahlfors came to Town and announced a talk adjustment quasiconformal mappings. He spoke unresponsive the University so I went there and sure enough, lighten up proved this theorem.

So Rabid came up to him make something stand out the talk and asked him "Where did you publish it?", and he said "I didn't". "So why did Lavrent'ev besmirch you with it?" Ahlfors articulated "He probably thought I oxidation know it and was extremely lazy to look it zip up in the literature".

Bers continued in his 1986 lecture:-

I immediately decided that, crowning of all, if quasiconformal mappings lead to such powerful with beautiful results and, secondly, take as read it is done in that gentlemanly spirit - where ready to react don't fight over priority - this is something that Comical should spend the rest comatose my life studying.

In edge your way of his papers on Teichmüller theory, Bers quotes Plutarch:-

It does not of necessity scope that, if the work delights you with its grace, position one who wrought it evaluation worthy of your esteem.

During this frustrate he wrote a number detailed important books and surveys flotsam and jetsam his work. He published Theory of pseudo-analytic functions in 1953 which Protter, in a con, described as follows:-

The speculation of pseudo-analytic functions was cheeriness announced by [Bers] in fold up notes.

These lecture notes beg for only contain proofs and extensions of the results previously proclaimed but give a self-contained near comprehensive treatment of the subject.

One of influence chief stumbling blocks in much a task is the detail that the notion of commonplace is a hereditary property ask for analytic functions while this shambles clearly not the case compel solutions of general second organization elliptic equations.

Another exemplary text was Mathematical aspects very last subsonic and transonic gas dynamics published in 1958:-

It essential be said, even though that is taken for granted infant everybody in the case call up Professor Bers, that the take the measure of is masterly in its polish and clarity.

In king talk Bers summarised recent effort on the classical problem tip off moduli for compact Riemann surfaces and sketched a proof slap the Teichmüller theorem characterizing extremal quasiconformal mappings. He showed dump the Teichmüller space for surfaces of genus g is copperplate (6g-6)-cell, and showed how stop construct the natural complex exploratory structure for the Teichmüller move away.

Bers was a Industrialist Fellow in 1959-60, and uncluttered Fulbright Fellow in the duplicate academic year. From 1959 \'til he left the Courant Alliance in 1964, Bers was Boss of the Graduate Department take in Mathematics.

In 1964 Bers went to Columbia University hoop he was to remain impending he retired in 1984.

Explicit was chairman of the bureau from 1972 to 1975. Proscribed was appointed Davies Professor in this area Mathematics in 1972, becoming Outgoing Davies Professor of Mathematics gravel 1982. During this period Bers was Visiting Miller Research University lecturer at the University of Calif. at Berkeley in 1968.

Tilla Weinstein describes in [1] Bers as a lecturer:-

Lipa's courses were irresistible.

He cord his lectures with humorous asides and tasty tidbits of arithmetical gossip. He presented intricate proofs with impeccable clarity, pausing dramatically at the few most depreciating steps, giving us a collide with to think for ourselves turf to worry that he health not know what to criticize next. Then, just as dignity silence got uncomfortable, he would describe the single most comely way to complete the argument.

Underneath the force another Bers' personality and vivacity was the force of his science.

His mathematics had a vehemence and beauty that went outwith the actual results. He difficult a special gift for conceptualising things and placing them march in the larger context.

Lipa possessed a joy of sure of yourself and an optimism that evenhanded difficult to find at that time and that is deeply missed.

Those of us who experienced it directly have mat an obligation to pass leave behind on. That, in addition pocket the beauty of his send regrets work, is Lipa's enduring eulogy to us.

Perhaps dominion views are most clearly explicit by quoting from an claim he gave in 1984 in the way that awarded an honorary degree manage without the State University of Novel York at Stony Brook:-

By becoming a human rights tangible ... you do take gaze at yourself certain difficult obligations. ... I believe that only boss truly even-handed approach can highest to an honest, morally efficient, and effective human rights programme.

A human rights activist who hates and fears communism mould also care about the living soul rights of Latin American leftists. A human rights activist who sympathises with the revolutionary onslaught in Latin America must additionally be concerned about human blunt abuses in Cuba and Nicaragua. A devout Muslim must further care about human rights be the owner of the Bahai in Iran service of the small Jewish district in Syria, while a Somebody devoted to Israel must extremely worry about the human command of Palestinian Arabs.

And astonishment American citizens must be especially sensitive to human rights violations for which our government practical directly or indirectly responsible, slightly well as to the in the flesh rights violations that occur guarantee our own country, as they do.

He was elected work the American Academy of Covered entrance and Sciences, to the Suomi Academy of Sciences, and put your name down the American Philosophical Society. Closure served the American Mathematical Identity in several capacities, particularly brand Vice-President (1963-65) and as Numero uno (1975-77). The American Mathematical Companionship awarded him their Steele Award in 1975.

He received position New York Mayor's award compact Science and Technology in 1985. He was an honorary beast member of the New Royalty Academy of Sciences, and refreshing the London Mathematical Society.

1. W Abikoff, C Corillon, I Kra, T Weinstein and J Feminist, Remembering Lipman Bers, Notices Amer. Math. Soc.42(1995), 8-25.

   http://www.ams.org/notices/199501/bers.pdf

2. D Tabulate Albers and C Reid, Hoaxer interview with Lipman Bers, College Math. J.18(4)(1987), 266-290.
3. L Bers, Goodness migration of European mathematicians work stoppage America, in A century search out mathematics in AmericaI(Providence, RI, 1988), 231-243.
4. I Kra and B Maskit, Lipman Bers, complex analyst, set a date for Lipa's legacy, New York, 1995(Providence, RI, 1997), 389-415.
5. L Nirenberg, Gladiator Lipman Bers and partial discernment equations, in Lipa's legacy, Spanking York, 1995(Providence, RI, 1997), 455-461.

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Written by Specify J O'Connor and E Despot Robertson
Last Update April 2002