Anthony Joseph Penico Explained

Anthony "Tony" Joseph Penico (June 11, 1923, Philadelphia – November 19, 2011, Missouri) was an American mathematician and engineer. He is known for the Penico theorem,[1] Penico solvability, and Penico series.[2] [3]

After graduating from South Philadelphia High School, Penico was awarded scholarships to the University of Pennsylvania. There he graduated in 1946 with a bachelor's degree in physics and in 1950 with a Ph.D. in mathematics.[4] His dissertation, written under the supervision of Richard D. Schafer, is entitled The Wedderburn Principal Theorem for Jordan Algebras. The theorem, which generalizes a theorem of A. A. Albert, was published in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society in 1951.[1] At the 1950 meeting of the International Congress of Mathematicians he was an approved (but not an invited) speaker.[5] In October 1969 he contributed a paper Functional-analysis identities for biadditive mappings on modules with non-associative scalars to the 668th meeting of the American Mathematical Society.[6]

After receiving his Ph.D., Penico moved with his wife to the Boston area, where he taught mathematics at Tufts College. In the mid-1950s the family moved to Northern California, where he worked as a Senior Engineering Specialist at the GTE's Research Laboratories. In the early 1960s, he became a Senior Research Mathematician at the Stanford Research Institute and also taught part-time at the University of California, Berkeley and at Stanford University. In 1966 Penico became a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Missouri–Rolla (which in 2008 was renamed the Missouri University of Science and Technology). He retired as professor emeritus in 1986.[4]

In 1948 he married Eva Yaremko (1925–2017). They had two sons, David Anthony Penico (1952–2008) and Stephen John Penico (born 1956). Anthony J. Penico died in 2011.[4]

Selected publications

References

  1. Penico. A. J.. The Wedderburn principal theorem for Jordan algebras. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. 70. 3. 1951. 404. 0002-9947. 10.1090/S0002-9947-1951-0041120-7. free.
  2. Book: Jacobson, Nathan. Nathan Jacobson. Structure and Representations of Jordan Algebras. 31 December 1968. American Mathematical Soc.. 978-0-8218-4640-7. 332.
  3. McCrimmon, Kevin. Kevin McCrimmon. Strong nilpotence of solvable ideals in quadratic Jordan algebras. Journal of Algebra. 81. 2. 1983. 488–507. 10.1016/0021-8693(83)90199-0. free.
  4. Web site: Attachment B. (Obituary) Dr. Anthony Joseph (Tony) Penico; General Faculty Meeting Minutes. Missouri University of Science and Technology (registrar.mst.edu). May 1, 2012.
  5. Book: On the structure of standard algebras by A. J. Penico. Proc. International Congress of Mathematicians, Cambridge, Mass. 1. 320. 1950.
  6. 875 & 952. 16. 6. October 1969. October 25, 1969, Cambridge, Massachusetts Meeting; Program of the Sessions; Abstracts of the Meeting; Functional-analysis identities for biadditive mappings on modules with non-associative scalars by Anthony J. Penico. Notices of the American Mathematical Society.