Person: Foulis, David James

David Foulis was an American mathematician who worked on the algebraic foundations of quantum mechanics.

David and Jim took out a patent on the mashie niblick, a wooden shafted club roughly equivalent to a modern seven iron.
After the award of his Bachelor's degree, Foulis studied for a Master's degree in Mathematics beginning his studies in September 1952.
In September 1956 Foulis returned to Tulane University where he began undertaking research for his Ph.D. with Fred Boyer Wright Jr as his thesis advisor.
Al Clifford invited Gordon Preston to spend the two years 1956-58 working with him at Tulane University and Preston was also a major influence on Foulis.
Foulis then moved to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dedication to teaching meant that there was less time for Foulis to undertake research, so his next paper did not appear until 1968 when he published Multiplicative elements in Baer *-semigroups.
Randall, after working in the nuclear industry, obtained a position at the University of Massachusetts and had a close and fruitful collaboration with Foulis for twenty years until his death in 1987.
Richard Greechie, who was one of Foulis's graduate students gaining a Ph.D. with his thesis Orthomodular Lattices in 1966, recalls how devoted Foulis was to teaching his students.
Finally, we mention that Foulis published seven undergraduate textbooks.

Born 26 July 1930, Hinsdale, Illinois, USA. Died 3 April 2018, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.

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Origin Usa

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