| Michael Drazin | |
| Birth Date: | 5 June 1929 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Workplaces: | Purdue University |
| Alma Mater: | University of Cambridge |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Robert Rankin and David Rees |
| Known For: | Drazin inverse |
| Awards: | Smith's Prize (1952) |
| Thesis Title: | Contributions to Abstract Algebra |
| Thesis Year: | 1953 |
Michael Peter Drazin (born 5 June 1929) is a British and American mathematician, working in noncommutative algebra.
The Drazins (Дразин) were a Russian Jewish family who moved to the United Kingdom in the years before World War I. Isaac Drazin founded in 1927 a well-known electrical goods shop in Heath Street, Hampstead, which existed for over 50 years.[1]
Isaac Drazin married Leah Wexler, and had three sons, of whom Michael was the eldest, and Philip Drazin, also a mathematician, was the youngest, the middle son being David; and died 1 January 1993.[2] [3]
Michael Drazin was born in London on 5 June 1929.[4] His younger brother Philip was educated as a boarder at St Christopher School, Letchworth during World War II.[5] The self-published memoirs of Roger Atkinson, a school friend of Michael (Mike), indicate that Drazin attended King Alfred School, London, located in Hampstead, retaining contacts at the school when it was evacuated in wartime to Royston, Hertfordshire; Atkinson was a boarder at St Christopher School, Letchworth from September 1942. In 1946 Atkinson and Drazin visited Paris together.[6]
Drazin was a student at the University of Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1950 and M.A. in 1953.[4] He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1953 for a dissertation Contributions to Abstract Algebra written with advisers Robert Rankin and David Rees.[7] He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1952 to 1956, during that period relocating to the United States.[8]
In the academic year 1957–8 Drazin was Visiting Lecturer at Northwestern University.[9] In 1958 he began a period at RIAS Inc. (the Research Institute for Advanced Studies) in Baltimore as senior scientist, after which he took a position as associate professor at Purdue University in 1962.[8] [10] [11]
Drazin gave his name to a type of generalized inverse in ring theory and semigroup theory he introduced in 1958, now known as the Drazin inverse. It was later extended to contexts in operator theory.[12]
While at RIAS, Drazin worked with Emilie Virginia Haynsworth, then at the National Bureau of Standards, within its numerical analysis program.[13] He also worked with the metallurgist Henry Martin Otte of RIAS, and they published a book of crystallographic tables.[14] [15]