Jesse Douglas
Douglas in c. 1932
Born(1897-07-03)July 3, 1897
New York City, New York, United States
DiedSeptember 7, 1965(1965-09-07) (aged 68)
New York City, New York, United States
Alma materCity College of New York (BA)
Columbia University (PhD)
Known forSolution to Plateau's problem
Spouse
Jessie Nayler
​
(m. 1940⁠–⁠1955)​
ChildrenLewis Philip Douglas
AwardsFields Medal (1936)
Bôcher Memorial Prize (1943)
Scientific career
FieldsCalculus of variations
Differential geometry
InstitutionsCity College of New York
MIT
Doctoral advisorEdward Kasner

Jesse Douglas (3 July 1897 – 7 September 1965) was an American mathematician and Fields Medalist known for his general solution to Plateau's problem.

Life and career

He was born to a Jewish family[1] in New York City, the son of Sarah (née Kommel) and Louis Douglas. He attended City College of New York as an undergraduate, graduating with honors in Mathematics in 1916. He then moved to Columbia University as a graduate student, obtaining a PhD in mathematics in 1920.[2]

Douglas was one of two winners of the first Fields Medals,[3] awarded in 1936. He was honored for solving, in 1930, the problem of Plateau, which asks whether a minimal surface exists for a given boundary. The problem, open since 1760 when Lagrange raised it, is part of the calculus of variations and is also known as the soap bubble problem. Douglas also made significant contributions to the inverse problem of the calculus of variations. The American Mathematical Society awarded him the Bôcher Memorial Prize in 1943.

Douglas later became a full professor at the City College of New York (CCNY), where he taught until his death. At the time CCNY only offered undergraduate degrees and Professor Douglas taught the advanced calculus course. Sophomores (and freshmen with advanced placement) were privileged to get their introduction to real analysis from a Fields medalist.

Selected papers

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Peter Lax, Mathematician: An Illustrated Memoir, by Reuben Hersh (American Mathematical Soc. 2014), page 102
  2. ↑ "Jesse Douglas (1897-1965)". www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk.
  3. ↑ Colding, Tobias Holck; Minicozzi, William P. "Jesse Douglas (1897–1965): A Biographical Memoir" (PDF). Retrieved 14 January 2024.

References

  • Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970–1990)
  • Biography in Encyclopædia Britannica (Aug. 2003)

Further reading

  • Themistocles M. Rassias, The Problem of Plateau – A tribute to Jesse Douglas and Tibor Rado (River Edge, NJ, 1992).
  • M. Struwe: Plateau's Problem and the Calculus of Variations, ISBN 0-691-08510-2
  • R. Bonnett and A. T. Fomenko: The Plateau Problem (Studies in the Development of Modern Mathematics), ISBN 2-88124-702-4
  • M. Giaquinta and S. Hildebrandt: "Calculus of Variations", Volumes I and II, Springer Verlag
  • Gray, Jeremy; Micallef, Mario (2008). "The Work Of Jesse Douglas On Minimal Surfaces". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series. 45 (2): 293–302. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-08-01192-0.

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