Mathematics at Berkeley : a history

350 Pages·2007·2.11 MB·English

by  C C Moore

Mathematics at Berkeley

Mathematics at Berkeley
A History
Calvin C. Moore
A K Peters
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moore, C. C. (Calvin C.), 1936-
Mathematics at Berkeley : a history / Calvin C. Moore.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-56881-302-8 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-56881-302-3 (alk. paper)
1. University of California, Berkeley. Dept. of Mathematics--History. 2. Mathematical
Sciences Research Institute (Berkeley, Calif.)--History. 3. Mathematics--Study and teach-
ing (Higher)--California. I. Title.
QA13.5.C23C356 2006
510.71’179467--dc22 2006012021
Cover Photographs
Top (from left to right): Alfred Tarski, 1968; S. S. Chern, 1968; Griffi th Evans, ca. 1940;
Julia Robinson, 1975; Derrick H. Lehmer, 1968; and Jerzy Neyman, ca. 1940. (First fi ve
reproduced courtesy of the UCB Mathematics Department; last one reproduced courtesy of
the UCB Statistics Department; photographs dated 1968 and 1975 by G. Bergman.)
Middle: College of California, Oakland, ca. 1860. (Call number Pic 19:01, reproduced
courtesy of University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.)
Bottom: Early Berkeley campus scene, looking west, ca. 1875. (Call number Neg 3:20b,
reproduced courtesy of University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.)
Printed in India
11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Doris

Table of Contents
Preface ix
Introduction xiii
1 Creating a University 1
2 Professor Welcker and the Department of Mathematics 15
3 Professor Stringham and the Department of Mathematics 29
4 Lagging Behind: 1909–1933 41
5 The Beginning of the Evans Years: 1932–1936 55
6 The Evans Years: 1936–1945 73
7 The Postwar Years: 1946–1949 91
8 Postwar Initiatives in Applied Mathematics 107
9 The Oath Controversy 119
10 Mathematics: 1950–1955 137
11 Growth and Separation of Statistics: 1950–1955 151
12 Change in the Wind: 1955–1957 163
13 The Kelley Years: 1957–1960 185
14 Computing and Computer Science 1955–1973 207
15 Campus Planning and Evans Hall 219
16 Growth and Stabilization: 1961–1973 237
17 Departmental Life in the “Sixties”: 1964–1973 259
18 Recovery: 1974–1985 275
19 MSRI: The Initial Years, 1978–1985 297
20 End Note: Highlights after 1985 307
Appendices 315
References 329
Photograph Credits 333
Index 335

Preface
The origins of this book lie in a conference that the mathematics department at
Berkeley sponsored in August 2000 on computational number theory in honor of
the Lehmer family. The honorees, Derrick Norman Lehmer (1869–1938), Derrick
Henry Lehmer (1904–1991), and Emma Trotskaya Lehmer (1906–) have contrib-
uted enormously to number theory and to Berkeley, and it was these contributions
that the conference recognized. Since the conference fell on the exact centenary of
the arrival of Derrick Norman in Berkeley as a fresh PhD from the University of
Chicago to begin his faculty career at Berkeley, it was my idea, as department chair,
to present, as a kind of preamble to the conference, a description of the Berkeley
mathematics department in 1900. Such a project involved historical research on
the university and the development of the mathematics program and the faculty,
beginning with its origins in the 1850s. What was presented to the conference was
in essence a summary of the fi rst three chapters of this book.
Friends and colleagues encouraged me to extend the narrative forward in time,
but then the question became where to stop. The year 1933–1934 was one possibil-
ity, since this was when Griffi th Evans was recruited to Berkeley with a charge to
make over the department and bring in a strong research component that had been
lacking. Robin Ryder had already told this story very well [Ryder], but it seemed
useful to embed these events in the larger context of what preceded it and what fol-
lowed it. What I have written here overlaps with Ryder’s narrative, since we both
used the same primary sources in the University Archives in Bancroft Library on
campus. The next possible cutoff was 1949, when Evans stepped down, but that
would exclude the events of the 1950s when Berkeley fi rst emerged as one of the
very top mathematics departments in the country. Then 1960 seemed a good cutoff,
particularly since I arrived in Berkeley as a new faculty member in 1961, and my
own curiosity about how the department had evolved up until that time would be
satisfi ed. In addition, as I often commented jocularly to colleagues, too many people
were still alive to be able safely to venture beyond this point. But with trepidation, I
did so for two reasons.