I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography PDF
Preview I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography
I WANT TO BE A MATHEMATICIAN Paul R. Halmos IWANTTOBEA MATHEMATICIAN An Automathography With 43 Photographs Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Paul R. Halmos Department of Mathematics University of Santa Clara Santa Clara, CA 95053 U.S.A. AMS Subject Classifications: 01A65, 01A70, 0lA80 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Halmos, Paul R. (Paul Richard) I want to be a mathematician. Includes index. 1. Halmos, Paul R. (paul Richard), 2. Mathematicians- United States- Biography. 1. Title. QA29.H19A35 1985 510'.92'4 [B] 84-26688 © 1985 by Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Springer-Verlag New York Inc. in 1985 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 1985 AII rights reserved. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form without written permission from Springer Science+Business Media, LLC . Typeset by Composition House Ltd., Salisbury, England. 9 8 7 6 5 4 321 ISBN 978-0-387-96470-6 ISBN 978-1-4612-1084-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4612-1084-9 Dedication To Ambrose, Doob, and von Neumann, who, without knowing it, made me what I am today. Overture This is an automathography, a mathematical biography written by its subject. It is definitely not a mathematics book, and, even more def initely, it is not the story of my origins and my life. Sure, I had parents (two), and wives (two, one at a time, the present one for forty years), and cats (eight, two at a time, the present two for three years). I had and have many faults, and, I'm pretty sure, a few virtues. I like Haydn, long walks, Nero Wolfe, and dark beer, and for a few years I tried TM. All that is true, but it's none of your business-that's not what this book is about. The book is about the career of a professional mathematician from the 1930's to the 1980's. It is presented, more or less, in chronological order, from high school to retirement, but its sections are organized by substance rather than time. It tells about the University of Illinois, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the universities commonly identified as Chicago, Michigan, and Indiana. It expresses prejudices, it tells an ecdotes, it gossips about people, and it preaches sermons. It tells about taking prelims, looking for a job, writing a book, travelling, teaching, and editing. Fifty years ago I was cocky, iconoclastic, eager, ambitious, in a hurry, ignorant, insecure. I have slowed down, mellowed (?), and learned a few things. To some extent the book is from the me of today to the me of yore, revealing some of the secrets that I desperately wanted to know then. P.R.H. Thanks Six people read every word of a typescript version of this book. Their comments (cut this out-who was he?-not so had-tone it down-are you sure?) cheered me up, or made me mad, hut, in either case, spurred me on. They are John Ewing, Elena Fraboschi (who typed it all, much of it several times), Leonard Gillman, Virginia Halmos, Walter Kaufmann-Biihler, and Peter Rosenthal. Everything they said helped, and I am truly grateful for their help. Thanks a lot. Table of Contents Part I. Student CHAPTER I Reading and writing and 'rithmetic Words 3 Books 5 Writing 7 Languages 9 Numbers 10 Study or worry 12 Learning English 14 High school 16 CHAPTER 2 A college education Move to Chambana , 20 How not to be a freshman 22 Trig and anaJyt 24 Calculus, and is there a doctor on the faculty? 26 Elementary mathematics and culture 28 Mathematical daydreams and BARBARA, 30 All Gaul 3] A Bachelor of Science 33 XI XII TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 3 Graduate school Statistics 36 The end of the affair 37 Matrices 40 The Dean 41 First class 43 Hazlett and Netzorg 45 Good morning, analysis 47 Why geometry? 48 CHAPTER 4 Learning to study Doob arrives 50 All work and politics . 52 Born again. 55 Other forces, other tongues 57 Prelims 60 For example 61 Statistics, no 64 Readings and ratings 66 Reprints: Doob's and others' 67 Study 69 CHAPTER 5 Learning to think Optional skipping 74 Roller coaster 76 Jobs, no 78 On my own 80 The end of an era . 82 CHAPTER 6 The Institute The common room 84 The center of the world 88 Insignificant people 89 Work 91 Work and between work. 93 A weak paper and a pretty good book. 95 Collaboration 97 Measures and Harvard 98 Classical mechanics 100 Birthdays 101 TABLE OF CONTENTS XIlI CHAPTER 7 Winning the war Back home in Illinois . 105 Meetings 106 Teaching at Syracuse . 108 Research at Syracuse . III Radiation Laboratory. 114 Referee and review 118 From Syracuse to Chicago 121 Part II. Scholar CHAPTER 8 A great university Eckhart Hall 127 Days of glory 129 What makes a great university? . 131 Teaching 133 Students and visitors . 137 CHAPTER 9 The early years Guggenheim 140 111easure Theory 143 Master's exams 144 Judgments . 146 Jimmie Savage. 149 Students and courses 152 The beginning of Hilbert space 156 Ph.D. students. 159 The Cambridge Congress. 162 Follow the sun. 164 CHAPTER 10 Montevideo Where to go? . 167 Saturation in Spanish . 170 Room and board . 172 Weather and climate . 177 How to get a chair 178 Humanities and sciences 179 Faculty of engineering 182
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