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Person: Gelbart, Abraham Markham

Abe Gelbart was an American mathematician who worked in complex function theory.

Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):

• He wrote his mathematical papers under the name Abe Gelbart.
• His parents were Wolf and Pauline Gelbart, both of whom were born in Poland.
• Ginsburg, who had an enthusiasm for teaching mathematics which few can have surpassed, was the ideal person to inspire the young man Gelbart who had no real formal mathematical education yet had a passion for the subject.
• In 1935 a solution to this problem by Abe Gelbart, Student, Central High School, Paterson, New Jersey was published.
• Now, advised by Ginsburg, Gelbart tried to gain admission to a university to study mathematics.
• At MIT, Gelbart undertook research advised by Norbert Wiener.
• After the award of his doctorate, Gelbart had temporary positions in North Carolina State College (1940-42), Brown University (1942) and NASA's Langley Field Research Center (1942-1943).
• After these three years of temporary positions, Gelbart was appointed to Syracuse University in 1943 and worked there for fifteen years.
• Stephen Gelbart studied mathematics at Cornell and Princeton and went on to become a leading researcher making highly significant contributions to the Langlands program.
• We mentioned above that Gelbart's joint work with Lipman Bers on S-monogenic functions developed into important work on the theory of pseudoanalytic functions.
• Both authors were at Syracuse University when this paper was published for Gelbart was instrumental in bringing Lipman Bers to Syracuse University in 1945.
• Abe Gelbart was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton during the academic year 1947-1948.
• The head of the department at Syracuse was William T Martin (1911-2004) (known as Ted) when Gelbart arrived.
• There was some difficulty in making a new appointment of chairman - Gelbart was offered the job but he declined.
• Gelbart said he had, and Milgram said he didn't.
• Gelbart threw Milgram out of his office and the department was supposed to choose up sides.
• When we had this problem here in 1948-51, as a result of that, eventually, not all at once, but eventually, Loewner left, Bers left, a good deal later, but still left, Gelbart ...
• The senior members of the Department (Bers, Loewner, Gelbart and Milgram) wanted a well-known mathematician of some sort to have the job, so that they rejected Kibbey strongly.
• Gelbart soon found himself in difficulties for other reasons.
• This list included Abe Gelbart.
• told me that the University intended to do what it could to help Gelbart.
• The university found Gelbart a lawyer who had been an assistant secretary of state under President Coolidge.
• The experience was a very bad one for Gelbart.
• In 1958 Gelbart left Syracuse University when he was appointed director of mathematics at Yeshiva University.
• This position meant a lot to Gelbart since it was the position that his teacher Jekutiel Ginsburg had held until his death in 1957.
• Not only did Gelbart take over Ginsburg's position at Yeshiva, but he also took over the role of editor of Scripta Mathematica.
• Gelbart also made efforts to convince government bodies and the general public about the need for basic research and for support of mathematics.
• The Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series at Bard College originated in 1979 when Nobel laureate physicist Paul Dirac accepted an invitation from Abe Gelbart and The Bard Center to deliver a lecture titled "The Discovery of Antimatter." The talk presented a view of science rarely seen by the general public - as a record of personal achievement as well as a body of facts and theories.
• Gelbart was awarded the Bard Medal in 1981.
• His son, Stephen Gelbart, delivered the lecture An elementary introduction to the Langlands program at the Conference dedicating the Professor Abraham Gelbart Chair in Mathematics at Bar-Ilan University in January 1983.
• In addition to the honours described above, Gelbart received an honorary degree from Dalhousie University in 1972 and an honorary degree from Bar-Ilan University in 1985.
• Bar-Ilan University named its Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences after Gelbart in 1990 in recognition of his highly successful efforts to obtain external funding for mathematical research at Bar-Ilan.
• Gelbart died from complications following cardiovascular surgery.

Born 2 December 1911, Paterson, New Jersey, USA. Died 7 September 1994, Manhattan, New York, 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