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Person: Forsythe, George Elmer

George Forsythe was a American mathematician and computer scientist who was responsible for the rapid development of computer science.

Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):

• Warren Forsythe was sent to Buenos Ayres by the Rockfellar Institute to undertake medical research for two years.
• It was in Ann Arbor that George was brought up.
• George Forsythe attended school in Ann Arbor, graduating in spring 1933.
• In September 1939 Alexandra Illmer, who Forsythe had known at Swarthmore, began her studies at Brown University and he helped her find suitable accommodation.
• Soon they became close friends and decided to marry on the same day that Forsythe would graduate with his Ph.D., namely 14 June 1941.
• In the spring of 1942 Forsythe was called to undertake war work as a meteorologist at the University of California at Los Angeles.
• In the summer of 1944 they went to Washington since Forsythe had been sent to work at the Pentagon as a U.S. Army Air Corps Weatherman.
• In 1954 the Institute for Numerical Analysis was discontinued and Forsythe, along with several other colleagues who had worked at the Institute, was given an appointment in the Mathematics Department at the University of California at Los Angeles.
• In 1961 a Computer Science Division was set up, still as part of the Mathematics Department, led by Forsythe.
• After the new Department had been running for a while, Forsythe took the year 1966-67 to visit various computer centres in Europe, Asia, and Australia.
• George was very skillful in bringing together our many diverse points of view.
• Forsythe was very aware of the need for good books on computer methods.
• Next we look at some quotations from Forsythe to give us a deeper understanding of his ideas.
• Forsythe died in the Hoover Hospital section of Stanford University Medical Center of pancreatic cancer at the age of 55.

Born 8 January 1917, State College, Center, Pennsylvania, USA. Died 9 April 1972, Stanford, Santa Clara, California, USA.

View full biography at MacTutor

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@J-J-O'Connor

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References

Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:

1. O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive