Walter Gottschalk
{{short description|American mathematician}}
Walter Helbig Gottschalk (November 3, 1918 – February 15, 2004) was an American mathematician, one of the founders of topological dynamics.
Biography
Gottschalk was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on November 3, 1918, and moved to Salem, Virginia as a child.[http://gottschalksgestalts.org/aboutauth.html About the author], Gottschalk's Gestalts, retrieved 2012-11-21.[http://www.sefandaa.org/halloffame/gottschalkw.html Walter H. Gottschalk], Salem Educational Foundation and Alumni Association Hall of Fame, retrieved 2012-11-21. His father, Carl Gottschalk,
was a German immigrant who worked as a machinist and later owned several small businesses in Salem; his younger brother, Carl W. Gottschalk, became a notable medical researcher.{{citation|title=Carl W. Gottschalk|journal=Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=77|pages=122–141|year=1999|url=http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9681&page=122}}
Gottschalk did both his undergraduate studies and graduate studies at the University of Virginia, finishing with a Ph.D. in 1944 under the supervision of Gustav A. Hedlund.{{mathgenealogy|name=Walter Helbig Gottschalk|id=36254}} After graduating, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, and was chair of the Pennsylvania mathematics department from 1954 to 1958.[http://www.math.upenn.edu/History/tenured_faculty_1899-.html Tenured faculty 1899–] and [http://www.math.upenn.edu/History/dept_chairs.html Past department chairs], Univ. of Pennsylvania Dept. of Mathematics, retrieved 2012-11-21. In the academic year 1947/1948 he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study.[http://www.ias.edu/people/cos/users/4592 Gottschalk, Walter H., Institute for Advanced Study] At Pennsylvania, his doctoral students included Philip Rabinowitz, who became known for his work in numerical analysis, and Robert Ellis, who became known for his work on topological dynamics. Gottschalk moved to Wesleyan University in 1963; at Wesleyan, he also served two terms as chair before retiring in 1982. He died on February 15, 2004, in Providence, Rhode Island, where he had lived since his retirement.
Contributions
Gottschalk and his advisor Gustav Hedlund wrote the 1955 monograph Topological Dynamics.Review of Topological Dynamics by Y. N. Dowker, {{MR|0074810}}.{{citation
| last = Halmos | first = Paul R. | author-link = Paul Halmos
| doi = 10.1090/S0002-9904-1955-09999-3
| issue = 6
| journal = Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
| mr = 1565733
| pages = 584–588
| title = Book Review: W. H. Gottschalk and G. A. Hedlund, Topological dynamics
| volume = 61
| year = 1955| doi-access = free
}}. Other research contributions of Gottschalk include the first study of surjunctive groups{{sfnp|Gottschalk|1973}} and a short proof of the De Bruijn–Erdős theorem on coloring infinite graphs.{{sfnp|Gottschalk|1951}}
As well as being a research mathematician, Gottschalk also put on two exhibits of mathematical sculptures in the 1960s.
Awards and honors
Gottschalk was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Selected publications
- {{citation
| last = Gottschalk | first = W. H.
| journal = Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
| mr = 0040376
| page = 172
| title = Choice functions and Tychonoff's theorem
| volume = 2
| year = 1951
| issue = 1
| doi=10.2307/2032641| jstor = 2032641
}}.
- {{citation
| last1 = Gottschalk | first1 = Walter Helbig
| last2 = Hedlund | first2 = Gustav Arnold
| location = Providence, R. I.
| mr = 0074810
| publisher = American Mathematical Society
| series = American Mathematical Society Colloquium Publications
| title = Topological dynamics
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=S7lYyqBR_iQC
| volume = 36
| year = 1955| isbn = 9780821874691
}}.
- {{Citation | last1=Gottschalk | first1=Walter | title=Recent Advances in Topological Dynamics (Proc. Conf. Topological Dynamics, Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn., 1972; in honor of Gustav Arnold Hedlund) | publisher=Springer-Verlag | location=Berlin, New York | series= Lecture Notes in Math. | doi=10.1007/BFb0061728 |mr=0407821 | year=1973 | volume=318 | chapter=Some general dynamical notions | pages=120–125| isbn=978-3-540-06187-8 }}.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottschalk, Walter Helbig}}
Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:University of Virginia alumni
Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty
Category:Wesleyan University faculty
Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science