Joseph Keller

Joseph Bishop Keller (July 31, 1923 – September 7, 2016) was an American mathematician who specialized in applied mathematics. He was best known for his work on the "geometrical theory of diffraction" (GTD).[2]

Joseph Bishop Keller
Born(1923-07-31)July 31, 1923
Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedSeptember 7, 2016(2016-09-07) (aged 93)
Stanford, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materNew York University
Known forGeometrical theory of diffraction
Keller–Miksis formulation
Einstein–Brillouin–Keller method
AwardsLester R. Ford Award (1976, 1977)
Gibbs Lecture (1977)
Eringen Medal (1981)
John von Neumann Prize (1983)
Timoshenko Medal (1984)
National Medal of Science (1988)
ICM Speaker (1994)
Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (1996)
Wolf Prize (1997)
Ig Nobel Prize (1999, 2012)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsNew York University
Stanford University
ThesisReflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves by thin curved shells[1]
Doctoral advisorRichard Courant[1]
Doctoral studentsHerbert Bishop Keller
George C. Papanicolaou
Bernard J. Matkowsky
L. Mahadevan

Early life and education

Born in Paterson, New Jersey on July 31, 1923, Keller attended Eastside High School, where he was a member of the math team.[3] After earning his undergraduate degree in 1943 at New York University, Keller obtained his PhD in 1948 from NYU under the supervision of Richard Courant. He was a professor of mathematics in the Courant Institute at New York University until 1979. Then he was Professor of Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University until 1993, when he became professor emeritus.

Research

Keller worked on the application of mathematics to problems in science and engineering, such as wave propagation. He contributed to the Einstein–Brillouin–Keller method for computing eigenvalues in quantum mechanical systems.

Awards and honors

Keller was awarded a Lester R. Ford Award (shared with David W. McLaughlin) in 1976[4] and (not shared) in 1977.[5] In 1988 he was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science, and in 1997 he was awarded the Wolf Prize by the Israel-based Wolf Foundation. In 1996, he was awarded the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics. In 1999 he was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for calculating how to make a teapot spout that does not drip. With Patrick B. Warren, Robin C. Ball and Raymond E. Goldstein, Keller was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2012 for calculating the forces that shape and move ponytail hair.[6][7] In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[8]

Personal life

Keller's second wife, Alice S. Whittemore, started her career as a pure mathematician but shifted her interests to epidemiology and biostatistics. Keller had a brother who was also a mathematician, Herbert B. Keller, who studied numerical analysis, scientific computing, bifurcation theory, path following and homotopy methods, and computational fluid dynamics. Herbert Keller was a professor at Caltech. Both brothers contributed to the fields of electromagnetics and fluid dynamics. Joseph Keller died in Stanford, California on September 7, 2016, from a recurrence of kidney cancer first diagnosed in 2003.[9]

Major publications
  • J.B. Keller. On solutions of Δu=f(u). Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 10 (1957), 503–510.
  • Edward W. Larsen and Joseph B. Keller. Asymptotic solution of neutron transport problems for small mean free paths. J. Mathematical Phys. 15 (1974), 75–81.
  • Joseph B. Keller and Dan Givoli. Exact nonreflecting boundary conditions. J. Comput. Phys. 82 (1989), no. 1, 172–192.
  • Jacob Rubinstein, Peter Sternberg, and Joseph B. Keller. Fast reaction, slow diffusion, and curve shortening. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 49 (1989), no. 1, 116–133.
  • Marcus J. Grote and Joseph B. Keller. On nonreflecting boundary conditions. J. Comput. Phys. 122 (1995), no. 2, 231–243.
  • Leonid Ryzhik, George Papanicolaou, and Joseph B. Keller. Transport equations for elastic and other waves in random media. Wave Motion 24 (1996), no. 4, 327–370.

References
  1. Joseph Keller at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. Keller, J.B. (1962). "Geometrical theory of diffraction". J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52 (2): 116–130. doi:10.1364/JOSA.52.000116. PMID 14454948.
  3. Roberts, Sam. "Joseph B. Keller, Mathematician With Whimsical Curiosity, Dies at 93", The New York Times, September 16, 2016. Accessed September 19, 2016. "Joseph Bishop Keller was born in Paterson, N.J., on July 31, 1923. His father, Isaac Keiles — whose name, he said, was changed when he arrived in the United States — was a Russian refugee who fled pogroms against Jews.... Joseph Keller competed on the math team at East Side High School in Paterson."
  4. Keller, Joseph B.; McLaughlin, David W. (1975). "The Feynman Integral". Amer. Math. Monthly. 82 (5): 451–465. doi:10.2307/2319736. JSTOR 2319736.
  5. Keller, Joseph B. (1976). "Inverse Problem". Amer. Math. Monthly. 83 (2): 107–118. doi:10.2307/2976988. JSTOR 2976988.
  6. Goldstein, R.; Warren, P.; Ball, R. (2012). "Shape of a Ponytail and the Statistical Physics of Hair Fiber Bundles" (PDF). Physical Review Letters. 108 (7): 078101. arXiv:1204.0371. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.108g8101G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.078101. PMID 22401258. S2CID 31964168.
  7. "Ray Goldstein Shares 2012 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics". University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 2013-02-03.
  8. List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2013-01-27.
  9. "Stanford Professor Emeritus Joseph Keller, an applied mathematician whose work investigated atomic explosions and oscillating ponytails, dies at 93". Stanford News. September 8, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
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