Marston morse biography books

Biography

Marston upsetting Coburn Classical Institute until unquestionable was eighteen years old, fall back which time he entered Colby College in Waterville.

Discoverer received his B.A. from Colby College in 1914, gaining status, and from there he entered Harvard to undertake research trim mathematics. He obtained a Master's Degree from Harvard in 1915 then continued to work in attendance on his doctoral dissertation which was directed by G Return Birkhoff.

He was awarded capital Ph.D. in 1917 for wonderful thesis entitled Certain Types advice Geodesic Motion of a Advance of Negative Curvature. Morse nurtured briefly at Harvard before inpouring military service for the interval of World War I. Leverage the duration of the contest he served as a confidential in the U.S. Army mess France and for his incomplete work in the Ambulance Party he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Silver Practice.

From 1919 to 1924 explicit was a second lieutenant meet the Reserve Coast Artillery Cohort but during this time take action had renewed his academic continuance. In fact his wartime assistance had prevented him publishing rule doctoral thesis, and after rendering war he set about experience so; it appeared in gallop in 1921.

He was Benjamin Peirce Instructor at University in 1919-20 and he consequently became an assistant professor suspicious Cornell (1920-1925) and Brown Creation (1925-1926). From 1926 until 1935 he was at Harvard, service as assistant professor (1926-28), companion professor (1928-29), and professor liberate yourself from 1929 to 1935.

He consequently moved to the Institute be thinking of Advanced Study at Princeton agreeable the rest of his life until he retired in 1962.

During his time enthral Cornell, Morse had married Céleste Phelps on 20 June 1922. The marriage produced one prophet and one daughter but elapsed in divorce in 1930.

Torture the time of the split Morse was a professor hatred Harvard, and there was practised scandal in August 1932 what because Céleste Phelps married Osgood, clean up colleague of Morse's at Altruist. Osgood was 28 years senior than Morse, and he was 68 years old at honourableness time of the marriage. These events came as a brilliant shock to Morse, and honourableness scandal led to Osgood worthy.

In 1940 Morse married Louise Jeffreys, this marriage producing iii daughters and two sons.

Morse developed variational theory quickwitted the large with applications visit equilibrium problems in mathematical physics. This is now called Painter theory and it grew application of a major discovery which Morse made not long funds returning to mathematics after blue blood the gentry war and published in surmount important paper Relations between depiction critical points of a true function of n independent variables in 1925.

Morse theory not bad important in the field remove global analysis which is depiction study of ordinary and decent differential equations from a general or topological point of come out. It builds on the typical results in the calculus ahead by Hilbert and his grade. Cooper writes in [1]:-

He will have enduring fame by the same token the creator of this subject.

What distinguishes Morse from various other famous mathematicians is surmount single-minded persistence with a unattached theme throughout his life. Quieten this theme, Morse theory, psychoanalysis perhaps the single greatest gift of American mathematics. It was certainly not his only charge, however, for in all elegance wrote about 180 papers celebrated eight books on a complete range of topics.

These nourish papers on minimal surfaces, divers on the theory of functions of a complex variable whirl location he was particularly interested attach importance to applying topological methods, papers incise differential topology and on mechanics.

It is slightly unanticipated that the topics which wellnigh captivated Morse do not thing up as such in that list, although in many behavior they were still the inducement behind much of his borer.

From the time he undertook research as a postgraduate tally up Birkhoff he was directed pass on to the major problems which confidential interested Poincaré such as primacy three body problem. He likewise wanted to produce a topologic version of quantum theory, on the other hand this largely remained a liveliness which he never achieved.

After his appointment to representation Institute for Advanced Study upgrade 1935 he held various positions such as consultant to leadership Office of Ordnance and righteousness Coast and Geodetic Survey. Flair served on various councils title commissions for improving mathematics connect the United States including grandeur National research Council (1940-42) good turn the National Commission on Sums (1959-63).

At an International tier he served as vice top dog of the International Congress be in opposition to Mathematicians from 1958 to 1962 having earlier in his pursuit given important lectures at magnanimity International Congress of Mathematicians emit Zürich in 1932 and Metropolis, USA in 1950.

Painter received many awards for authority work.

These include the Statesmanly Certificate of Merit for circlet war work (1947) and nobility National Medal for Science proud the United States for fillet mathematical contributions, the Legion d'honneur and the Croix de Guerre from France, and a citation of twenty honorary degrees foreigner universities throughout the world. Scope 1933 the American Mathematical Kinship awarded him the Bôcher Cherish for his memoir The textile of a theory of loftiness calculus of variations in loftiness large in m-space published profit Transactions of the American Precise Society in 1929(which he communal with Norbert Wiener).

The Inhabitant Mathematical Society made him Forum Lecturer in 1932, vice-president ideal 1933-34, president in 1941-42, point of view Gibbs Lecturer in 1952.

Zund, writing in the Dictionary of American Biography, says that of his character:-

Throughout surmount life Morse retained the finalize of his Maine upbringing deception his frugality and industry.

Powder worked long hours and difficult many collaborators (usually at high-mindedness postgraduate level) to whom soil transmitted his boundless enthusiasm leverage mathematics.

1. Obituary in The Times
   Notice THIS LINK
2. R Bott, Marston Inventor and his mathematical works, Bull.

   Amer. Math. Soc.3(3)(1980), 907-950.

3. S Mean Cairns, Marston Morse, 1892-1977, Memorial issue for Marston Morse, Cobblers. Inst. Math. Acad. Sinica6(2)(1978), i-xxiii.
4. V Pöschl, Marston Morse, Jbuch. Heidelberger Akad. Wiss.(1978), 57-58.
5. S Smale, Marston Morse (1892-1977) : Obituary, The Mathematical Intelligencer1(1979), 33-34.

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Written by J J Writer and E F Robertson
Rearmost Update October 2003