Alexander Abian
{{short description|Iranian-born American mathematician}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alexander Abian
| image = Alexander Abian.png
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Alexander (Smbat) Abian
| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1923|1|1}}
| birth_place = Tabriz, Iran
| children =
| death_date = {{death date and age|1999|7|24|1923|1|1|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Ames, Iowa, U.S.
| nationality =
| other_names = Smbat Abian
| occupation = Professor at Iowa State University
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Alexander (Smbat) Abian (January 1, 1923 – July 24, 1999){{cite web | url = http://iowaobits.tributes.com/obituary/show/Alexander-Abian-38024256 | website = tributes.com | publisher = Tributes, Inc. | access-date = 18 November 2017 |title = Iowa Obituaries – Alexander Abian Obituary – Ames, Iowa | quote = Alexander was born on January 1, 1923 and passed away on Saturday, July 24, 1999. ... The information in this obituary is based on data from the US Government's Social Security Death Index.}} was an Iranian-born Armenian-American mathematician who taught for over 25 years at Iowa State University and became notable for his frequent posts to various Usenet newsgroups, and his advocacy for the destruction of the Moon.
Life
Abian was born in Tabriz, Iran, and was of Armenian ethnicity. After earning an undergraduate degree in Iran, he emigrated to the United States in 1950, where he received a master's degree from the University of Chicago. Abian then obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, where he wrote a dissertation on a topic in invariant theory under the direction of Isaac Barnett.{{mathgenealogy|id=237}} After teaching posts in Tennessee, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, he joined the faculty of Iowa State in 1967. He wrote three books and published more than two hundred papers. He retired in 1993.{{citation|url=http://www.amestrib.com/news.cfm?num=143 |title=ISU professor Abian dies at 76 |first=Rebecca |last=Anderson |date=July 1999 |newspaper=Ames Tribune |department=Mid-Iowa News |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001204074300/http://www.amestrib.com/news.cfm?num=143 |archive-date=December 4, 2000 }}.
Moonless Earth theory
Abian gained a degree of international notoriety for his claim that blowing up the Moon would end virtually every natural disaster. He made this claim in 1991 in a campus newspaper,{{cite news |title=YIKES!: GOODNIGHT, MOON Shoot the moon? Hell, says Prof. Alexander Abian, why not just blow it up?; |url=https://people.com/archive/goodnight-moon-vol-35-no-24/| publisher=People | date=1991-06-24 | access-date=2022-04-12 }} stating that a Moonless Earth wouldn't wobble, eliminating both the seasons and its associated events like heat waves, snowstorms and hurricanes.Valente, Judith. "Hate Winter? Here's A Scientist's Answer: Blow Up the Moon." The Wall Street Journal. April 22, 1991. Abian said that "Those critics who say 'Dismiss Abian's ideas' are very close to those who dismissed Galileo."{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Morin |title=Drunks + Kids = Profits |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/29/AR2006052900845.html|newspaper=The Washington Post | date=2006-05-30 | access-date=2006-10-18}}
The proposed nuclear destruction of the Moon has been rejected by astronomers on several grounds: the nuclear arsenal of mankind would fail to do more than crack the Moon's crust; if successful, the heating of Earth's atmosphere by a hail of falling lunar debris would be destructive to all life; and an increase, not decrease, in the Earth's wobble without a stabilizing Moon, leading to an Earth axial tilt of 45 degrees and more drastic seasons would occur.{{cite news |title=What would happen if we blew up the Moon? |work=Very Interesting Magazine |first=Tim |last=Myburgh |issue=40 |date=2018-03-01}}{{cite news |title=What would happen if we blew up the Moon? |work=Skyways Magazine |issue=May, 2018 |publisher=Airlink (Pty) Ltd. |place=Johannesburg |date=2018-05-01}}
Books
- 1965. {{cite book | title=The theory of sets and transfinite arithmetic | location=Philadelphia| publisher=W. B. Saunders | lccn= 65023086}}{{cite journal | last=Fehr | first=Howard F. |title=Review of Mathematics: The Theory of Sets and Transfinite Arithmetic by Alexander Abian | journal=Science | publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) | volume=151 | issue=3711 | date=1966-02-11 | issn=0036-8075 | doi=10.1126/science.151.3711.680.a | page=680 | s2cid=239553235 |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.151.3711.680.a| url-access=subscription }}
- 1971. {{cite book | title=Linear associative algebras | year=1971 | location=New York | publisher=Pergamon | lccn= 74130799 | isbn=0-08-016564-8}}
- 1976. {{cite book | title=Boolean Rings | year=1976 | publisher=Branden Press | lccn= 76012065 | isbn=0-8283-1678-3}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=237 Alexander (Smbat) Abian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028033614/https://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=237 |date=2018-10-28 }} at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- {{Cite web |url=http://www.math.iastate.edu/abian/homepage.html |title=Abian's web page |access-date=May 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970513041931/http://www.math.iastate.edu/abian/homepage.html |archive-date=May 13, 1997 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}
- [https://zbmath.org/authors/?q=ai:abian.alexander Author profile] in the database zbMATH
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkVqCHGa-3w PBS segment from 1998] on YouTube
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Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:Iranian people of Armenian descent
Category:American people of Armenian descent
Category:Iowa State University faculty
Category:Iranian emigrants to the United States
Category:University of Chicago alumni