George David Birkhoff (21 March 1884 - 12 November 1944) was an American mathematician. He was born in Overisel, Michigan. He was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics in his generation, and during his prime he was considered by many to be the preeminent American mathematician. He was professor of mathematics at Harvard from 1919-1944.

Birkhoff's single most famous result is the foundational ergodic theorem. This combined insights from Physics on the ergodic hypothesis with an abstract formulation in terms of measure theory; it opened up a whole area related to probability theory and dynamical systems.

He also worked on many other areas, initially in number theory and also on the Riemann-Hilbert problem and the three-body problem. He contributed to the theory of the four colour problem.

The mathematician Garrett Birkhoff (1911-1996) was his son.

Charges of anti-Semitism

As a major figure in the mathematical and scientific communities, Birkhoff's words and actions have come under closer scrutiny than otherwise might be the case. Birkhoff has been accused of anti-Semitism in exerting his influence on the hiring process at American institutions, particularly during the 1930s, a period when immigration from Europe to American universities was a major factor. He was of the group arguing that positions for home-grown American mathematicians were needed — an attitude that must be viewed in the context of a transition at that time from doctoral studies often being carried out in Europe.

The charge of anti-Semitism against Birkhoff is however generally regarded as substantiated in some specific ways. Among those who have charged Birkhoff with anti-Semitism is Albert Einstein who said, "G. D. Birkhoff is one of the world's great anti-Semites." Saunders Mac Lane, a close friend and collaborator of Birkhoff's son, has defended Birkhoff by stating that any anti-Semitic tendencies Birkhoff may have had were not excessive, compared to what was then considered the norm.

Awards and Honors

In 1923 he was awarded the inaugural Bôcher Memorial Prize by the American Mathematical Society for his paper, Dynamical Systems with Two Degrees of Freedom, which contained, among other things, what is now called the Birkhoff curve shortening flow.

Service

• Vice-president of the American Mathematical Society 1919
• President of the American Mathematical Society 1925-1926
• Editor of Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 1920-1924

Selected Publications

• G. D. Birkhoff, Proof of Poincaré's geometric theorem. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 14 (1913), no. 1, 14--22.
• G. D. Birkhoff, Dynamical Systems with Two Degrees of Freedom, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., Vol. 18, No. 2, 199-300.

References

• Saunders Mac Lane, Jobs in the 1930s and the views of George D. Birkhoff. Math. Intelligencer 16 (1994), no. 3, 9--10.
• H. S. Vandiver, Some of my recollections of George David Birkhoff. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 7 1963 271--283.

External link

• "George David Birkhoff" in The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive