Robert Finn
BornAugust 8, 1922
DiedAugust 16, 2022 (aged 100)
Academic background
EducationRensselaer Polytechnic Institute (BS)
Syracuse University (PhD)
ThesisOn some properties of the solution of a class of non-linear partial differential equations
Doctoral advisorAbe Gelbart
Academic work
DisciplineMathematics
Sub-disciplineMinimal surfaces
Quasiconformal mapping
InstitutionsUniversity of Southern California
California Institute of Technology
Stanford University

Robert Samuel Finn (August 8, 1922 – August 16, 2022) was an American mathematician.

Early life and education

Finn was born in Buffalo, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in mathematics from Syracuse University. Studying under Abe Gelbart, Finn completed a thesis titled On some properties of the solution of a class of non-linear partial differential equations.[1]

Career

He completed post-doctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1953 and at the Institute for Hydrodynamics of the University of Maryland from 1953 to 1954. In 1954, he became an assistant professor at the University of Southern California and in 1956 an associate professor at California Institute of Technology. Beginning in 1959, he was a professor at Stanford University.[2]

At the beginning of his career, Finn did research on minimal surfaces and quasiconformal mappings and later in his career on mathematical problems of hydrodynamics, such as mathematically rigorous treatments of capillary action. He was a visiting professor at the University of Bonn and several other universities. He was an exchange scientist in 1978 at the Soviet Academy of Sciences and in 1987 at the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin. In 1994 he received an honorary doctorate from the Leipzig University. For the academic years 1958–1959 and 1965–1966, he held Guggenheim Fellowships.[3] From 1979, he was an editor of the Pacific Journal of Mathematics.

Personal life

Finn turned 100 on August 8, 2022. He died eight days later, in Palo Alto, California, on August 16, 2022.[4]

Selected works

References

  1. Robert Finn at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. biographical information from American Men and Women of Science, Thomson Gale 2004
  3. "Robert Finn". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  4. "Robert S. Finn". Trident Society. Retrieved August 20, 2022.


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