Person: Kolchin, Ellis Robert

Ellis Kolchin was an American mathematician who worked on differential algebra, differential equations and linear algebraic groups.

Kolchin served with Naval Intelligence, first in Washington, then in the South Pacific.
Despite serving his country during the war, Kolchin was still able to publish papers such as On the basis theorem for differential systems (1942) and begin his fundamental work on the Galois theory of differential fields in the three part paper Extensions of differential fields.
Kolchin returned to Columbia University at Morningside Heights, Manhattan, after serving in the South Pacific and accepted a position there.
In 1977 Contributions to algebra : A collection of papers dedicated to Ellis Kolchin was published.
- is a reflection of Ellis Kolchin's wide-ranging mathematical curiosity.
In this volume we celebrate the influence that Kolchin's work on the Galois theory of differential fields has had on the development of differential algebra and linear algebraic group theory.
In 1973 Kolchin published Differential algebra and algebraic groups.
In 1985 Kolchin published Differential algebraic groups.
In a review, A R Magid gives a clear, but rather technical, description of the topic which Kolchin spent his life developing.
As we indicated above, Kolchin spent his whole career at Columbia University.
Kolchin was honoured for his achievements.

Born 18 April 1916, New York City, New York, USA. Died 30 October 1991, New York City, New York, USA.

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