Person: Evans, Griffith Conrad
Griffith Evans was an American mathematician whose work dealt with potential theory, functional analysis, integral equations and minimal surfaces. He was head of mathematics at Berkeley for many years.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- George Evans had published a number of school level mathematics texts including Algebra for schools which had given him a good reputation as a teacher of mathematics.
- It was under Bôcher's supervision that Evans began research at Harvard, being awarded his Master's degree in 1908 and his doctorate in 1910.
- Already before completing his Ph.D., Evans had been employed as an instructor at Harvard in session 1909-10.
- Most of this time Evans spent in Rome studying with Volterra but he also had an interest in applied mathematics and so he spent a summer in Berlin studying with Planck.
- Evans returned to the United States in 1912.
- The decision was not made lightly by Evans from which of these institutions to accept a post but he felt that Rice offered him the greatest opportunities.
- Appointed as assistant professor in 1912, Evans was promoted to full professor at Rice in 1916.
- With the help of Volterra, Evans facilitated the enrolment of U.S. military personnel in special wartime courses in Italian universities.
- Evans did a fine job of attracting visiting professors to Rice during his time there, including Menger and Rado.
- The University of California at Berkeley continued to try to attract Evans, and he taught there during the summer terms of 1921 and 1928.
- In the summer of 1934 Evans left Rice and began his task at Berkeley as chairman of the mathematics department.
- Evans was chairmen of the mathematics department at Berkeley for fifteen years, ending his term in 1949.
- He retired in 1955 but lived to see the new mathematics building at Berkeley named Evans Hall in 1971.
- Evans also wrote on mathematical economics, in particular on monopolies, competition and cooperation, taxation, profit, prices, etc.
- Evans received many honours for his mathematical contribution.
Born 11 May 1887, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Died 8 December 1973, Berkeley, California, USA.
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Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- @J-J-O'Connor
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
