Richard Askey

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Richard Askey

|image = Richard Askey.jpg

|caption = Richard Askey in 1977

|birth_name = Richard Allen Askey

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1933|06|04}}

|birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri

|death_date = {{death date and age|2019|10|09|1933|06|04}}

|death_place = Madison, Wisconsin

|resting_place = Forest Hill Cemetery

|fields = Mathematics

|workplaces = University of Chicago
University of Wisconsin–Madison

|alma_mater = Washington University in St. Louis
Harvard University
Princeton University

|doctoral_advisor = Salomon Bochner

|academic_advisors =

|doctoral_students = James A. Wilson

|notable_students =

|known_for = Askey–Wilson polynomials
Askey–Gasper inequality

|author_abbrev_bot =

|author_abbrev_zoo =

|influences =

|influenced =

|awards =

|religion =

|signature =

|footnotes =

}}

Richard Allen Askey (June 4, 1933 – October 9, 2019) was an American mathematician, known for his expertise in the area of special functions. The Askey–Wilson polynomials (introduced by him in 1984 together with James A. Wilson) are on the top level of the ( $q$ -)Askey scheme, which organizes orthogonal polynomials of ( $q$ -)hypergeometric type into a hierarchy. The Askey–Gasper inequality for Jacobi polynomials is essential in de Brange's famous proof of the Bieberbach conjecture.

Biography

Askey earned a B.A. at Washington University in St. Louis in 1955, an M.A. at Harvard University in 1956, and a Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1961. After working as an instructor at Washington University (1958–1961) and University of Chicago (1961–1963), he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1963 as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. He became a full professor at Wisconsin in 1968, and since 2003 was a professor emeritus. Askey was a Guggenheim Fellow, 1969–1970, which academic year he spent at the Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam.

In 1983, he gave an invited lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Warsaw.

He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.

In 1999, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2009, he became a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).

In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

In December 2012, he received an honorary doctorate from SASTRA University in Kumbakonam, India.

File:Grave of Richard Allen Askey (1933–2019) at Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, WI.jpg

Askey explained why hypergeometric functions appear so frequently in mathematical applications: "Riemann showed that the requirement that a differential equation have regular singular points at three given points and every other complex point is a regular point is so strong a restriction that (Riemann's) differential equation is the hypergeometric equation with the three singularities moved to the three given points. Differential equations with four or more singular points only infrequently have a solution which can be given explicitly as a series whose coefficients are known, or have an explicit integral representation. This partly explains why the classical hypergeometric function arises in many settings that seem to have nothing to do with each other. The differential equation they satisfy is the most general one of its kind that has solutions with many nice properties".

Askey was also very much involved with commenting and writing on mathematical education at American schools. A well-known article by him on this topic is "Good Intentions are not Enough".

He died in Madison, Wisconsin on October 9, 2019, and was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/wisconsin-state-journal-askey-richard-a/146699767/ |title=Askey, Richard Allen 'Dick' |newspaper=Wisconsin State Journal |place=Madison, Wisconsin |page=C8 |date=2019-10-27 |access-date=2024-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Works

{{Citation |title = Orthogonal polynomials and special functions|author = Richard Askey|publisher = SIAM|isbn = 978-0-89871-018-2|mr = 0481145|year = 1975}}.
{{Citation |title = Some basic hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials that generalize Jacobi polynomials |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9q9o03nD_xsC |isbn=978-0-8218-2321-7 |mr=783216 |date=1985 |journal=Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society|volume=54 |issue=319 |pages=iv+55 |doi=10.1090/memo/0319|author1 = Richard Askey|author2 = James Wilson}}
{{Citation |title = Special functions|author1 = George E. Andrews|author2 = Richard Askey|author3 = Ranjan Roy|url = https://books.google.com/books?isbn=7302090890|encyclopedia= Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Its Applications|publisher = The University Press, Cambridge|year = 1999}}.

References

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=2011-04-25}}

{{Cite web |url=https://www.math.wisc.edu/node/780 |title=In Memoriam: Richard Askey | Department of Mathematics |access-date=2019-10-12 |archive-date=2019-10-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012124330/https://www.math.wisc.edu/node/780 |url-status=dead }}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.math.wisc.edu/oldnews/2004/facdinner.htm |title=Six Retirees Feted at Faculty and Staff Dinner, 2004 Van Vleck Notes |access-date=2016-07-04 |archive-date=2016-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820063412/http://www.math.wisc.edu/oldnews/2004/facdinner.htm |url-status=dead }}

[http://www.mathunion.org/db/ICM/Speakers/ ICM Plenary and Invited Speakers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121206052452/http://www.mathunion.org/db/ICM/Speakers/ |date=2012-12-06}}

[http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Askey.html Askey biography]

[http://fellows.siam.org/index.php?sort=year&value=2009 SIAM Fellows: Class of 2009]

[https://www.ams.org/profession/fellows-list List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society], retrieved 2012-11-03.

[http://lists.siam.org/pipermail/siam-opsf/2013-January/000077.html Honorary doctorates for Andrews, Askey and Berndt]

{{cite book |editor-last1=Askey |editor-first1=Richard |editor-last2=Koornwinder |editor-first2=T. H. |editor-last3=Schempp |editor-first3=W. |title=Special functions: group theoretical aspects and applications |date=30 November 2001 |publisher=Reidel |isbn=1-4020-0319-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1402003196}}

Askey, Richard (2001). [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.122.827&rep=rep1&type=pdf Good intentions are not enough] ([http://www.math.wisc.edu/~askey/ask-gian.pdf Dead Link] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206075955/http://www.math.wisc.edu/~askey/ask-gian.pdf |date=2019-12-06 }}), in [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Great_Curriculum_Debate.html?id=JiW3s0HuH2AC The Great Curriculum Debate: How Should We Teach Reading and Math?], T. Loveless (ed.), Brookings Institution Press, Ch. 8, pp. 163–183.

{{cite journal |author-last=Wimp |author-first=J. |title=Special functions (review) |journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society |date=2000 |volume=37 |pages=499–510 |url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/2000-37-04/S0273-0979-00-00879-X/home.html |doi=10.1090/s0273-0979-00-00879-x |doi-access=free}}

}}

External links

[https://www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituary/Richard-Askey Obituary for Richard Allen "Dick" Askey]
[https://tudelft.roelofkoekoek.nl/askey.html The Askey-scheme of hypergeometric polynomials and its q-analogue by Koekoek & Swarttouw]
[http://staff.science.uva.nl/~thk/pictures/Askey80.html Photo gallery on the occasion of Dick Askey's 80th.]
[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=richard+askey&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C11 search on author Richard Askey] from Google Scholar
{{ResearchGate|Richard_Askey}}

Category:1933 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:Writers from St. Louis

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:20th-century American mathematicians

Category:21st-century American mathematicians

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:American mathematical analysts

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty

Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni

Category:Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians