Barry Simon Explained

Barry Simon
Spouse:Martha Simon
Birth Place:New York City
Alma Mater:AB, Harvard University
PhD, Princeton University
Workplaces:Princeton University
Caltech
Doctoral Advisor:Arthur Wightman
Doctoral Students:Percy Deift
Alexander Kiselev
Antti Kupiainen
Professor
Awards:Henri Poincaré Prize (2012)
Bolyai Prize (2015)
Leroy P. Steele Prize (2016)
Dannie Heineman Prize (2018)

Barry Martin Simon (born 16 April 1946) is an American mathematical physicist and was the IBM professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Caltech,[1] known for his prolific contributions in spectral theory, functional analysis, and nonrelativistic quantum mechanics (particularly Schrödinger operators), including the connections to atomic and molecular physics. He has authored more than 400 publications on mathematics and physics.

His work has focused on broad areas of mathematical physics and analysis covering: quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, Brownian motion, random matrix theory, general nonrelativistic quantum mechanics (including N-body systems and resonances), nonrelativistic quantum mechanics in electric and magnetic fields, the semi-classical limit, the singular continuous spectrum, random and ergodic Schrödinger operators, orthogonal polynomials, and non-selfadjoint spectral theory.[2]

Early life

Barry Simon's mother was a school teacher, his father was an accountant. His ancestors were from Odesa and Grodno. His grandfather got the new surname, Simon, at Ellis Island; his original surname was Slopak.[3] Simon attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn.[4] [5] Simon is an observant Jew.[3]

Career

During his high school years, Simon started attending college courses for highly gifted pupils at Columbia University. In 1962, Simon won a MAA mathematics competition. The New York Times reported that in order to receive full credits for a faultless test result he had to make a submission with MAA. In this submission he proved that one of the problems posed in the test was ambiguous.[5] [2]

In 1962, Simon entered Harvard with a stipend. He became a Putnam Fellow in 1965 at 19 years old.[6] He received his AB in 1966 from Harvard College and his PhD in Physics at Princeton University in 1970, supervised by Arthur Strong Wightman. His dissertation dealt with Quantum mechanics for Hamiltonians defined as quadratic forms.[2]

Following his doctoral studies, Simon took a professorship at Princeton for several years, often working with colleague Elliott H. Lieb on the Thomas–Fermi Theory and Hartree–Fock Theory of atoms in addition to phase transitions and mentoring many of the same students as Lieb. He eventually was persuaded to take a post at Caltech, from which he retired in the summer of 2016.[2] [7]

His status is legendary in mathematical physics and he is renowned for his ability to write scientific manuscripts "in five percent of the time ordinary mortals need to write such papers."[8]

A former graduate student of Simon's, in a tale revealing of his brilliance, once stated:

Honors and awards

Selected publications

Articles

Books

P(\Phi)2

Euclidean (Quantum) Field Theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1974, .

L2

perturbations of orthogonal polynomials. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2011, .

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.math.caltech.edu/people/simon.html Caltech Math Faculty page
  2. Gesztesy . Fritz . Harrell . Evans M. . Deift . Percy A. . Rosen . Lon . Fröhlich . Jürg . Reed . Mike . From Mathematical Physics to Analysis: A Walk in Barry Simon's Mathematical Garden . . 1 August 2016 . 63 . 7 . 740–752 . 10.1090/noti1403. free .
  3. Web site: Barry Simon, Mathematical Physicist . Heritage Project . 8 November 2023 . en . 7 July 2022.
  4. News: Vogel . Mike . What is it about Brooklyn's James Madison High? . am New York . June 10, 2015 . The school has selected honorees for its 2016 Wall of Distinction, former Madison alumni association president Richard Kossoff told me. They include food critic Arthur Schwartz, renowned physicist and mathematician Barry Simon, screenwriter Roger Schulman, who co-wrote "Shrek," and the late David "Sonny" Werblin, the NY Jets owner who brought Joe Namath to the team..
  5. News: Terte . Robert H. . One Student Plus one Challenge Equals One Perfect Math Score . The New York Times . 39.
  6. Web site: Putnam Competition Individual and Team Winners . Mathematical Association of America. December 9, 2021.
  7. Web site: Clavin . Whitney . Lifetime of Numbers: Q&A with Barry Simon . Caltech News . California Institute of Technology . August 10, 2016.
  8. Web site: math.caltech.edu. Simonfest Barry Stories: Jürg Fröhlich.
  9. Book: Approximation of Feynman integrals and Markov fields by spin systems by Barry Simon. Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians (Vancouver, BC, 1974). 2. 1975. Canad. Math. Congress. Montreal. 399–402. 0441161.
  10. Web site: APS Fellow Archive. American Physical Society. (Search on year 1981 & institution Princeton University.)
  11. Web site: Prof. BARRY SIMON . Austrian Academy of Sciences .
  12. Web site: Barry Martin Simon Membership . American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
  13. https://www.ams.org/profession/fellows-list List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
  14. http://mta.hu/news_and_views/mta-international-bolyai-prize-goes-to-barry-simon-135978/''Bolyai Prize goes to Barry Simon
  15. Web site: Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics. American Physical Society. 7 September 2018.
  16. Web site: Galvin . Molly . National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and Foreign Associates; Historic Number of Women Elected to Its Membership . News from the National Academy of Sciences . National Academy of Sciences . April 30, 2019.
  17. Web site: Review of Convexity: An Analytic Viewpoint by Barry Simon. Poplicher, Mihaela. April 19, 2021. MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
  18. Web site: Review of A Comprehensive Course in Analysis. Part I by Barry Simon. Berg, Michael. January 28, 2016. MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
  19. McCarthy . John E. . Book Review: Loewner's theorem on monotone matrix functions. . Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society . 57 . 4 . 2019-12-16 . 0273-0979 . 10.1090/bull/1688 . 679–684. 213549854 . free .

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