Category Archives: Obituaries

Some Math News

Posted on August 27, 2019 by woit

My Columbia colleague Patrick Gallagher passed away a few months ago at the age of 84. He had only recently retired, and for many years was the longest serving member of the department and an important part of its institutional … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands, Obituaries | 7 Comments

Various

Posted on May 13, 2019 by woit

Possibly of interest: Goro Shimura, one of the major figures in twentieth century number theory and arithmetic geometry passed away on May 3 in Princeton at the age of 89. Princeton has an article about his life and work here. … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries, Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Michael Atiyah 1929-2019

Posted on January 16, 2019 by woit

While away on vacation, I heard last week the sad news of the death last week of Michael Atiyah, at the age of 89. Atiyah was both a truly great mathematician and a wonderful human being. In his mathematical work … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 7 Comments

Roy Glauber 1925-2018: Notes on QFT

Posted on December 28, 2018 by woit

I saw today that Roy Glauber has passed away, at the age of 93. John Preskill speculates that Glauber was the last living member of the wartime T division at Los Alamos. My only interaction with him was that he … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 13 Comments

Tim May 1951-2018

Posted on December 24, 2018 by woit

I was sorry to learn yesterday of the death of Tim May, who had been a frequent commenter here on the blog. For more about his life, see here and here. One can find his comments here for instance by … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 2 Comments

Heinz-Dieter Zeh 1932-2018

Posted on June 6, 2018 by woit

I was sorry to learn today of the death on April 15th of H. Dieter Zeh, one of the major figures responsible for improving our understanding of the physics involved in the measurement problem and related interpretational issues in quantum … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 1 Comment

Stephen Hawking 1942-2018

Posted on March 14, 2018 by woit

Front-page on every news source today is the sad report that Stephen Hawking died yesterday at the age of 76. For the best description of his scientific accomplishments, I recommend the obituary in the Guardian written by his sometime collaborator … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 13 Comments

Vladimir Voevodsky 1966-2017

Posted on October 1, 2017 by woit

I was very sorry to hear yesterday of the announcement from the IAS of the untimely death of Vladimir Voevodsky, at the age of 51. Last year I had the chance to meet Voevodsky and talk with him for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 6 Comments

Bertram Kostant 1928-2017

Posted on February 25, 2017 by woit

I was sorry to just hear via a comment here about the recent death of Bert Kostant, at the age of 88. MIT has a story about him here. Kostant was a major figure in the field of representation theory, … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

John Nash 1928-2015

Posted on May 24, 2015 by woit

I was sorry to hear this morning that John Nash and his wife Alicia died yesterday in a car crash (news story here). They were in a taxi on the New Jersey Turnpike, heading home from the airport after a … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 20 Comments