Ralph Abraham (mathematician)
{{Short description|American mathematician (1936–2024)}}
{{for|the politician|Ralph Abraham (politician)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image = Ralph Abraham.jpg
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = Abraham in 2008
| birth_name = Ralph Herman Abraham
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1936|7|4}}
| birth_place = Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2024|9|19|1936|7|4}}
| death_place = Santa Cruz, California, U.S.
| nationality = American
| fields = Mathematics
| workplaces = University of California, Santa Cruz
| alma_mater = University of Michigan
| thesis_title = Discontinuities in General Relativity
| thesis_url = https://search.lib.umich.edu/catalog/record/002145032
| thesis_year = 1960
| doctoral_advisor = Nathaniel Coburn
| doctoral_students =
| known_for =
| awards =
}}
Ralph Herman Abraham (July 4, 1936 – September 19, 2024) was an American mathematician. In 1968 he became a member of the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and later stayed on as a professor emeritus of mathematics.
Life and work
Abraham earned his BSE (1956), MS (1958), and PhD (1960) from the University of Michigan. His PhD thesis, titled Discontinuities in General Relativity, was written under the direction of Nathaniel Coburn.{{MathGenealogy |id=5051}} Prior to joining UCSC, he held positions at the University of California, Berkeley (research lecturer in mathematics; 1960–1962), Columbia University (postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor of mathematics; 1962–1964) and Princeton University (assistant professor of mathematics; 1964–1968). He has also held visiting positions in Amsterdam, Paris, Warwick, Barcelona, Basel, and Florence.
He founded the Visual Math Institute at UCSC{{cite news |last=Baine |first=Wallace |date=July 15, 2016 |title=Santa Cruz County Stories: UCSC's Ralph Abraham keeps alive the memories of Santa Cruz's hip golden era in 1975 |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |url=https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2016/07/15/santa-cruz-county-stories-ucscs-ralph-abraham-keeps-alive-the-memories-of-santa-cruzs-hip-golden-era/ |access-date=2024-06-19}} in 1975; at that time, it was called the "Visual Mathematics Project".{{cite magazine
| last1 = McClen | first1 = Rebecca
| last2 = Brown | first2 = David Jay
| date = Winter 1991
| issue = 3
| magazine = Mondo 2000
| pages = 150–154
| title = Chaos & Catastrophe: An interview with Ralph Abraham
| url = https://archive.org/details/Mondo.2000.Issue.03.1991/page/n151}} He was editor of World Futures and for the International Journal of Bifurcations and Chaos. Abraham was a member of cultural historian William Irwin Thompson's Lindisfarne Association.{{cite book
| last = Swimme | first = Brian Thomas
| isbn = 9781640096172
| pages = 32–33
| publisher = Catapult
| title = Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GlezEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA32
| year = 2023}}
Abraham has been involved in the development of dynamical systems theory since the 1960s and 1970s. He has been a consultant on chaos theory and its applications in numerous fields, such as medical physiology, ecology, mathematical economics, and psychotherapy.[http://www.isss.org/conferences/sonoma2006/2006_ISSS_50thAnnualMeeting_Sonoma_Program-Body-Acrobat6-150dpi.pdf Complexity, Democracy and Sustainability] The 50th Anniversary Meeting of The International Society for the Systems Sciences. Sonoma State University, 2006. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
Another interest of Abraham's concerns alternative ways of expressing mathematics, for example visually or aurally. He has staged performances in which mathematics, visual arts and music are combined into one presentation. Abraham developed an interest in "Hip" activities in Santa Cruz in the 1960s and had a website gathering information on the topic.{{cite web|url=http://www.ralph-abraham.org/1960s/|title=Santa Cruz 1960s|website=www.ralph-abraham.org}} He credited his use of the psychedelic drug DMT with "swerv[ing his] career toward a search for the connections between mathematics and the experience of the Logos".{{cite book|last1=Sheldrake|first1=Rupert|last2=McKenna|first2=Terence|last3=Abraham|first3=Ralph|title=The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination & Spirit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iIPHtyQHpTIC&pg=PT63|access-date=12 April 2014|date=2013-08-20|publisher=Monkfish Book Publishing|isbn=9781939681102|pages=63–}}
Abraham died at his home in Santa Cruz County, at the age of 88.{{cite news |last=Baine |first=Wallace |date=October 6, 2024 |title=From math to mushrooms, intellectual explorer Ralph Abraham was always looking for the Big Picture |newspaper=Lookout Santa Cruz |url=https://lookout.co/ralph-abraham-chaos-theory-counterculture-uc-santa-cruz-from-math-to-mushrooms-intellectual-explorer-was-always-looking-for-the-big-picture/ |access-date=2024-10-06}}
Works
;Publications
- 1987. [https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/2y9mc-bgv54 Foundations of Mechanics], 2nd edn. With Jerrold E. Marsden;{{cite journal|author=Sternberg, Shlomo|author-link=Shlomo Sternberg|title=Review: Foundations of mechanics, 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, by Ralph Abraham and Jerrold E. Marsden|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society |series=New Series|year=1980|volume=2|issue=2|pages=378–387|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1980-02-02/S0273-0979-1980-14771-0/S0273-0979-1980-14771-0.pdf|doi=10.1090/S0273-0979-1980-14771-0|doi-access=free}} 1st edition 1967
- 1988. [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-1029-0 Manifolds, Tensor Analysis, and Applications], 2nd edn. With Jerrold E. Marsden and Tudor Ratiu. {{doi|10.1007/978-1-4612-1029-0}}
- 1992. Dynamics, the Geometry of Behavior, 2nd edn. With C. D. Shaw
- 1992. Trialogues on the Edge of the West. With Terence McKenna and Rupert Sheldrake
- 1992. Chaos, Gaia, Eros
- 1995. The Web Empowerment Book. With Frank Jas and Will Russell
- 1995. Chaos in Discrete Dynamical Systems. With Laura Gardini and Christian Mira.companion CD-ROM by Ronald Joe Record and Ralph Abraham
- 1997. The Evolutionary Mind. With Terence McKenna and Rupert Sheldrake
- 2000. The Chaos Avant-garde. With Yoshisuke Ueda
- 2011. [https://books.google.com/books?id=D2KquAAACAAJ Bolts From the Blue]
- 2016. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TSqKDAEACAAJ Hip Santa Cruz, Vol. 1.]
;Film
- 1989. The Strange New Science of Chaos, as himself
- 2009. [http://cognitionfactor.net/cognition-factor/the-cast/RalphAbraham.html Cognition Factor 2009], as himself
- 2010. DMT: The Spirit Molecule, as himself{{citation |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340425/fullcredits#cast |title=Full cast and crew |work=DMT: The Spirit Molecule |publisher=IMDb |year=2010}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.ralph-abraham.org/ Personal website] Ralph Abraham.
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Category:People from Burlington, Vermont
Category:Mathematicians from Vermont
Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:21st-century American mathematicians
Category:Complex systems scientists
Category:University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni
Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
Category:Columbia University faculty