Daniel Kleitman Explained

Daniel J. Kleitman (born October 4, 1934)^{[1] [2] [3]} is an American mathematician and professor of applied mathematics at MIT. His research interests include combinatorics, graph theory, genomics, and operations research.

Biography

Kleitman was born in 1934 in Brooklyn, New York,^[1] the younger of Bertha and Milton Kleitman's two sons. His father was a lawyer who after WWII became a commodities trader and investor. In 1942 the family moved to Morristown, New Jersey,^[4] and he graduated from Morristown High School in 1950.^[1]

Kleitman then attended Cornell University, from which he graduated in 1954,^[1] and received his PhD in Physics from Harvard University in 1958 under Nobel Laureates Julian Schwinger and Roy Glauber. He is the "k" in G. W. Peck, a pseudonym for a group of six mathematicians that includes Kleitman. Formerly a physics professor at Brandeis University, Kleitman was encouraged by Paul Erdős to change his field of study to mathematics. Perhaps humorously, Erdős once asked him, "Why are you only a physicist?"^[1]

Kleitman joined the applied mathematics faculty at MIT in 1966, and was promoted to professor in 1969.^[5]

Kleitman coauthored at least six papers with Erdős, giving him an Erdős number of 1.

He was a math advisor and extra for the film Good Will Hunting.^[6] Since Minnie Driver, who appeared in Good Will Hunting, also appeared in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon, Kleitman has a Bacon number of 2. Adding the two numbers results in an Erdős–Bacon number of 3, which is a tie with Bruce Reznick for the lowest number anyone has.^[7]

In 2024 Kleitman was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.^[8]

Personal life

On July 26, 1964 Kleitman married Sharon Ruth Alexander. They have three children.^[1]

Selected publications

• On a combinatorial problem of Erdős. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.. 1966. 17. 139–141. 0184866. 10.1090/s0002-9939-1966-0184866-9. Kleitman. Daniel. free.
• On Dedekind's problem: The number of monotone Boolean functions. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.. 1969. 21. 3. 677–682. 0241334. 10.1090/s0002-9939-1969-0241334-6. Kleitman. Daniel. free.
• The number of finite topologies. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.. 1970. 25. 2. 276–282. 0253944. 10.1090/s0002-9939-1970-0253944-9. Kleitman. Daniel. Rothschild. Bruce. free.
• On collections of subsets containing 4-member Boolean algebras. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.. 1971. 28. 87–90. 0270924. 10.1090/s0002-9939-1971-0270924-9. Erdős. Paul. Kleitman. Daniel. free.
• Asymptotic enumeration of partial orders on a finite set. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.. 1975. 205. 205–220. 0369090. 10.1090/s0002-9947-1975-0369090-9. Kleitman. Daniel J.. Rothschild. Bruce L.. free.
• On Dedekind's problem: The number of isotone Boolean functions. II . Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.. 1975. 213. 373–390. 0382107. 10.1090/s0002-9947-1975-0382107-0. Kleitman. Daniel. Markowsky. George. free.
• The number of semigroups of order n. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.. 1976. 55. 1. 227–232. 0414380. 10.1090/s0002-9939-1976-0414380-0. Kleitman. Daniel J.. Rothschild. Bruce R.. Spencer. Joel H.. free. ^[9]
• A quasi-polynomial bound for the diameter of graphs of polyhedra. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 1992. 26. 2. 315–316. 1130448. 10.1090/s0273-0979-1992-00285-9. math/9204233. Kalai. Gil. Kleitman. Daniel J.. 37821778.
• Piercing convex sets. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 1992. 27. 2. 252–256. 1149871. 10.1090/s0273-0979-1992-00304-x. Alon. Noga. Kleitman. Daniel J.. free.
• MSARI: Multiple sequence alignments for statistical detection of RNA secondary structure. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004. 101. 33. 12102–12107. 514400. 10.1073/pnas.0404193101. 15304649. 2004PNAS..10112102C. Coventry. Alex. Kleitman. Daniel J.. Berger. Bonnie. free.

See also

• Kleitman–Wang algorithms
• Littlewood–Offord problem

External links

• Kleitman's homepage
• Peck . G. W. . G. W. Peck. Kleitman and Combinatorics: A Celebration. Discrete Mathematics. 2002. 257. 2–3. 193–224. 1935723. 10.1016/S0012-365X(02)00595-2. (article available on Douglas West's web page, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign)

Notes and References

1. Peck . G. W. . G. W. Peck. Kleitman and Combinatorics: A Celebration. Discrete Mathematics. 2002. 257. 2–3. 193–224. 1935723. 10.1016/S0012-365X(02)00595-2. (article available on Douglas West's web page, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign).
2. "Kleitman, Daniel J.," in: Who's Who in Frontier Science and Technology, 1, 1984, p. 396.
3. https://books.google.com/books?id=6YNUAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Kleitman,+Daniel+J%22+AND+%221934%22 Kleitman, Daniel J in American Men of Science, vol. 4, 2009
4. Web site: New park, plus tree plan, make for sunny summer day on Hillcrest Avenue in Morristown. Kevin Coughlin. MorrisTownGreen.com. July 25, 2012. .
5. Web site: MIT Mathematics - Daniel Kleitman. www-math.mit.edu. 23 March 2010. 2 April 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100402161048/http://www-math.mit.edu/people/profile.php?pid=135. dead.
6. Daniel J. Kleitman, "My Career in the Movies,", Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 45, 502 (April 1998)
7. Web site: Grossman . Jerry . Items of Interest Related to Erdös Numbers . The Erdös Number Project . . 24 August 2018.
8. Web site: National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and International Members. April 30, 2024.
9. The publication states "Bruce R. Rothschild", a typographical error for "Bruce L. Rothschild".