Bernard Epstein
{{short description|American mathematician}}
File:Portrait Photo Bernard Epstein 1989.jpg
Bernard Epstein (10 August 1920, Harrison, New Jersey – 30 March 2005, Montgomery County, Maryland) was an American mathematician and physicist who wrote several widely used textbooks on mathematics.Washington Post obituary: [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/-TGMt74kW4Y Bernard Epstein, College Mathematics Professor, 83] (This obituary erroneously states that Professor Epstein died at age 83 instead of the correct age 84 and also mistakenly states the number of grandchildren as 17 rather than 16 )
Epstein was the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Romania, Yitzkhak Aharon Epstein and Sophie-Sarah née Goldenberg,Personal family records and was the first person in his family to go to college. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics and physics from New York University and then in 1947 a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, with thesis advisor Maurice Heins, from Brown University with thesis Method for the Solution of the Dirichlet Problem for Certain Types of Domains.{{MathGenealogy|id=4339}}
In the early 1940s, he worked as a physicist at what is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology. During World War II, he was selected to join the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bombs. After the war, he worked for two years at Harvard University as a research associate, taught mathematics as an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania,{{Cite web |url=https://www.math.upenn.edu/History/tenured_faculty_1899-.html |title=U. of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Mathematics, Tenured Faculty History: 1899 - |access-date=2016-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306182343/https://www.math.upenn.edu/History/tenured_faculty_1899-.html |archive-date=2016-03-06 |url-status=dead }} Stanford University and NYU and as a professor at Yeshiva University3 April 2005, Washington Post death notice: [http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=bernard-epstein&pid=3368741 EPSTEIN, Dr. BERNARD (Age 84)] and then spent 21 years on the faculty of the University of New Mexico as a professor of mathematics until his retirement in 1984.
Sabbaticals included Office of Naval Research, London;[https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0485461 Article title] |ONR London report by Epstein The Technion in Haifa, Israel; University of Maryland; and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. After retirement, he taught at George Mason University.
Epstein was dissertation advisor for the following Ph.D. students:
- Anne Scheerer, University of Pennsylvania, 1953
- William Trench, University of Pennsylvania, 1958
- Jack Minker, University of Pennsylvania, 1959
- Edwin Sherry, Yeshiva University, 1964
- Darrell L. Hicks, University of New Mexico, 1969 {{cite web |url=http://www.math.mtu.edu/~dlhicks/Hicks.html |title=Darrell L. Hicks' Home Page |website=www.math.mtu.edu |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020207015024/http://www.math.mtu.edu/~dlhicks/Hicks.html |archive-date=7 February 2002 |url-status=dead}}
- Harvey Z. Senter, Yeshiva University {{cite journal|doi=10.1002/sapm1967461425 | volume=46 | issue=1–4 | title=The Three-Dimensional Dirichlet Problem Associated with a Plane Lamina | journal=Journal of Mathematics and Physics | pages=425–439 | last1 = Epstein | first1 = Bernard| year=1967 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishpress.com/review/in-print-review/rabbi-dr-zecharia-harvey-senter-kashrus-pioneer-84/2021/04/07/ | title=Rabbi Dr. Zecharia Harvey Senter, Kashrus Pioneer, 84 | date=7 April 2021 }}
Upon his death at age 84, he was survived by his wife, five children, and 16 grandchildren. His sixth child, a daughter, predeceased him.
Selected publications
=Articles=
- {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| title=Some inequalities relating to conformal mapping upon canonical slit-domains
| journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
| volume=53
| issue=8
| date=1947
| pages=813–819
| mr=0022259
| doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1947-08895-9 | doi-access=free}}
- {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| title=A method for the solution of the Dirichlet problem for certain types of domains
| journal=Quarterly of Applied Mathematics
| volume=6
| issue=3
| date=1948
| pages=301–317
| jstor=43633676
| doi=10.1090/qam/28692 | doi-access=free}}
- with S. Bergman: {{cite journal|title=Determination of a compressible fluid flow past an oval-shaped obstacle|journal=Journal of Mathematics and Physics|volume=26 |issue= 1–4 |year=1948 |pages=195–222|doi=10.1002/sapm1947261195|last1= Bergman |first1= Stefan |last2= Epstein |first2= Bernard}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3yti7thPlYC&q=%22Determination+of+a+compressible+fluid+flow+past+an+oval-shaped+obstacle%22+epstein&pg=PA28 |title = Numerical analysis|isbn = 9780821813065|last1 = Curtiss|first1 = John H.|year = 1956| publisher=American Mathematical Soc. }}
- with J. Lehner: {{cite journal|title=On Ritt's representation of analytic functions as infinite products|journal= Journal of the London Mathematical Society | volume=27 | year=1952 | pages=30–37 | doi=10.1112/jlms/s1-27.1.30 | last1=Epstein |first1= Bernard |last2= Lehner |first2= Joseph}}
- with A. Scheerer: {{cite journal|title= The existence of a generalized Green's function in the plane |journal= Journal d'Analyse Mathématique |volume=4 |year=1956 |pages=222–235|doi=10.1007/BF02787722| doi-access=free |last1= Epstein |first1= Bernard |last2= Scheerer |first2= Anne |s2cid= 124528688 }}
- with David S. Greenstein and Jack Minker: "An extremal problem with infinitely many interpolation conditions". Annals of Finnish Academy of Science (Soumalainen Tiedaekatamia Tomituksia), Series A:1 Mathematics 250/10, 1958.
- with F. Haber:[http://www.emcs.org/acstrial/newsletters/fall07/haber.html EMC Society Founder Passes: Fred Haber 1921–2007, emsc.org] {{cite journal|title= The parameters of nonlinear devices from harmonic measurements|journal=IRE Transactions on Electron Devices|volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=26–38|doi=10.1109/T-ED.1958.14324|year=1958|last1=Haber|first1=Fred|last2=Epstein|first2=Bernard|bibcode=1958ITED....5...26H|s2cid=51642216}}
- {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| title=The kernel function and conformal invariants
| journal=Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics
| volume=7
| issue=6
| date=1958
| pages=925–936
- with I. J. Schoenberg: {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| last2=Schoenberg | first2=Isaac Jacob
| title=On a conjecture concerning Schlicht functions
| journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
| volume=65
| issue=4
| date=1959
| pages=273–275
| mr=0108588
| doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1959-10342-6 | doi-access=free}}
- with J. Minker: {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| last2=Minker | first2=Jack
| title=Extremal interpolatory problems in the unit disc
| journal=Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
| volume=11
| issue=5
| date=1960
| pages=777–784
| mr=0118853
| doi=10.1090/S0002-9939-1960-0118853-8 | doi-access=free}}
- {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| title=On the mean-value property of harmonic functions
| journal=Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
| volume=13
| issue=5
| date=1962
| pages=830
| mr=0140700
| doi=10.1090/S0002-9939-1962-0140700-0 | doi-access=free}}
- {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| title=A remark concerning the solution of the Dirichlet problem by finite differences
| journal=Mathematics of Computation
| volume=16
| date=1962
| issue=77
| pages=110–112
| mr=0132199
| doi=10.1090/S0025-5718-1962-0132199-3 | doi-access=free}}
- with M. M. Schiffer: {{cite journal|title=On the mean-value property of harmonic functions|journal=Journal d'Analyse Mathématique |volume=14 |issue=1 |year=1965 |pages=109–111 |doi=10.1007/BF02806381 | doi-access=free |last1=Epstein|first1=Bernard|last2=Schiffer|first2=Menahem Max|s2cid=121605803 }}
- {{cite journal|title= On a difference equation arising in a learning-theory model |journal= Israel Journal of Mathematics |volume= 4|issue= 3|pages= 145–152|doi=10.1007/BF02760073|doi-access=free|year= 1966|last1= Epstein|first1= Bernard|s2cid= 119940454 }}
- with H. Senter: {{cite journal|title=The three-dimensional Dirichlet problem associated with a plane lamina|journal=Journal of Mathematics and Physics |volume=46 |issue=1–4 |pages=425–439 |doi=10.1002/sapm1967461425|year=1967 |last1=Epstein |first1=Bernard |last2=Senter |first2=Harvey}}
- with J. R. Blum: {{cite journal|title=On the Fourier transforms of an interesting class of measures|journal= Israel Journal of Mathematics|volume=10 |issue= 3 |year=1971 |pages=301–305 |doi=10.1007/BF02771647|doi-access=free|last1= Blum |first1= Julius R. |last2= Epstein |first2= Bernard |s2cid= 120487512}}
- {{cite journal
| last1=Epstein | first1=Bernard
| title=Infinite divisibility of Student's t-distribution
| journal=Sankhyā: The Indian Journal of Statistics
| series=Series B
| date=1977
| volume=39
| issue=2
| pages=103–120
| jstor=25052058}}
=Books=
- {{cite book|title=Partial differential equations: an introduction|year=1962|title-link=Partial differential equations}}Copson, E. T. [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3071380&fileId=S0013091500014838 "Book Review: Bernard Epstein, Partial Differential Equations—An Introduction] (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1962), x+ 273 pp., 74s." Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (Series 2) 13, no. 02 (1962): 193-193. {{cite book|title=2nd edition|year=1975}}
- {{cite book|title=Orthogonal families of analytic functions|year=1965}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Orthogonal-families-functions-Mathematics-paperbacks/dp/B0000CMR44|title = Orthogonal families of analytic functions|date = January 1965|publisher = Collier-Macmillan}}
- {{cite book|title=Linear functional analysis: introduction to Lebesgue integration and infinite-dimensional problems|year=1970}} {{Cite book|isbn = 0721633951|title = Linear Functional Analysis: Introduction to Lebesgue Integration and Infinite-dimensional Problems|last1 = Epstein|first1 = Bernard|year = 1970| publisher=W. B. Saunders Company }}
- with Liang-shin Hahn:[https://books.google.com/books?id=s3nMMkPEvqoC&pg=PA200 brief bio of Liang-shin Hahn, Complex Numbers and Geometry, p. 200] {{cite book|title=Classical complex analysis|year=1996|title-link=complex analysis}}{{Cite book |isbn = 086720494X|title = Classical Complex Analysis|last1 = Hahn|first1 = Liang-Shin|last2 = Epstein|first2 = Bernard|year = 1996| publisher=Jones and Bartlett Publishers }}
References
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Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:20th-century American physicists
Category:American expatriates in England
Category:American expatriates in Israel
Category:American mathematicians
Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
Category:American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:Jewish American physicists
Category:Manhattan Project people
Category:New York University alumni
Category:People from Harrison, New Jersey