Person: Chuaqui, Rolando
Rolando Chuaqui was a Chilean mathematician who trained first as a medic before turning to mathematics. He was an active researcher and important figure in the development of mathematical logic in Chile.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Basim Chuaqui was born in Homs, Syria but emigrated to Chile where he met Chilean born Georgina Kettlun.
- Chuaqui studied at the National Institute school in Santiago de Chile.
- This school, officially known as Liceo Ex A-0 - Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera, had been founded in 1813 and was, at the time Rolando studied there, probably the leading high school in Chile.
- Grandjot began the course which Chuaqui attended with logic and recommended Alfred Tarski's book Introduction to Logic and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences (1936) and Willard Van Orman Quine's book Methods of Logic (1950).
- Chuaqui found these books easy reading and then progressed to Rudolf Carnap's Der logische Aufbau der Welt Ⓣ(The logical structure of the world) (1928).
- Chuaqui was greatly impressed by Carnap's book even though, since he did not know German, he could only approach it from a poor translation.
- Chuaqui began to build a library of mathematics books, which the local bookshop run by the mathematics professor Oscar Martín was able to import for him.
- After studying groups, rings, ideals, and fields, Chuaqui commented that mathematicians used easy words for difficult ideas, while doctors used difficult words for easy ideas.
- Grandjot recommended that Chuaqui should study differential and integral calculus but said that he would not teach that.
- He suggested that for calculus Chuaqui should take some lessons from Egbert Hesse who was a young lecturer in the School of Engineering at the University of Chile.
- Chuaqui worked as an assistant lecturer in biochemistry while he waited for a decision from Berkeley.
- At Berkeley Chuaqui was advised by David Blackwell who had been appointed to a professorship at the University of California at Berkeley in 1954.
- He advised Chuaqui who submitted his Ph.D. thesis A definition of probability based on equal likelihood in 1965.
- After the award of his Ph.D., Chuaqui returned to Chile and was appointed to the Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Chile.
- Chuaqui had begun writing this paper while still in Berkeley and had submitted it on 1 January 1965.
- When Chuaqui took up his position in the Department of Mathematics in the University of Chile in Santiago de Chile he began enthusiastically contributing to its development.
- Chuaqui did not agree with other members in the Faculty of Engineering on the direction that mathematics teaching should take and in 1969 he resigned and was appointed as a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
- Abraham Robinson had met Chuaqui when he had visited the University of California in 1967.
- Robinson asked Chuaqui if it would be possible to hold the first Latin American meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic in Chile.
- Chuaqui was enthusiastic and a committee was set up, with Chuaqui as chairman, to organise the meeting at the University of Chile in January 1969.
- This was one of the difficulties which led to Chuaqui resigning in 1969.
- Unlike the University of Chile, the rector Fernando Castillo Velasco and other leading members of the Pontifical Catholic University, were enthusiastic about holding the First Latin American Symposium on Mathematical Logic and it took place in July 1970 with Chuaqui as chairman of the organising committee.
- Chuaqui published many papers over the following years beginning with: Cardinal algebras of functions and integration (1971); A representation theorem for linearly ordered cardinal algebras (1971); and Forcing for the impredicative theory of classes (1972).
- Chuaqui himself had been criticised by some of his colleagues for remaining in Chile.
- In 1981 Chuaqui published the book Axiomatic set theory.
- Chuaqui received many honours for his contributions.
- Since 1999 the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Universidad de Valparaíso, the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad de Concepción have held an annual conference named the 'Rolando Chuaqui Kettlun Conference in Philosophy and Sciences'.
- Chuaqui had also been honoured by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with the building which houses the Department of Mathematics named for him.
Born 30 December 1935, Santiago de Chile, Chile. Died 22 April 1994, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Chile
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
