Person: Herstein, Israel Nathan
Yitz Herstein was a Polish mathematician who worked in America. He worked on ring theory but he is best known for his algebra text-books.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Yitzchak is the Hebrew version of Isaac but when he was in primary school his teachers called him Israel and he was known by that name ever since.
- In fact, like Yitz, Chaim was later not known by that name but called Harvey.
- After his marriage to Marianne Deson, Herstein moved to the University of Indiana and received a Ph.D. in 1948 for a thesis Divisor Algebras written under Max Zorn's supervision.
- In Chicago, Herstein was influenced by Abraham Albert.
- His appointment as Assistant Professor at Chicago was in Mathematics and Economics and Herstein published some papers relating to economics while holding the post.
- A A Albert was chairman of the Mathematics Department at Chicago and had been desperate to bring Herstein back there.
- The faculty approved Herstein's appointment.
- In addition to work on rings and algebras Herstein also worked on groups and fields.
- Herstein is perhaps best known for his beautifully written algebra texts, especially the undergraduate text Topics in algebra (1964).
- Topics in Ring Theory was based on lectures Herstein gave at the University of Chicago and first published in the University of Chicago Mathematics Lecture Notes series.
- The book largely concerns Herstein's work on Lie and Jordan structure of simple associative rings which he published in various papers in the early 1950s.
- Matters mathematical by Herstein and Kaplansky is an interesting book, based on a course designed to introduce students who were not specialising in mathematics.
- Herstein supervised 30 research students.
- Often Yitz would take us to Mama Luigi's for a late dinner, where we talked for hours.
- (Yitz kept an automobile in storage in Rome for his frequent visits there - but he was equally at home in all of the world's great cities.) ...
Born 28 March 1923, Lublin, Poland. Died 9 February 1988, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Poland
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
