Mathematician:Paul Richard Halmos

Mathematician

Hungarian-born mathematician who made fundamental advances in the areas of probability theory, statistics, operator theory, ergodic theory and functional analysis (in particular, Hilbert spaces).

Also famous for his widely-cited book Naive Set Theory.

Nationality

Hungarian-American

History

• Born: 3 March 1916, Budapest, Hungary
• Died: 2 Oct 2006, Los Gatos, California, USA

Achievements

• Iff
• Halmos Function
• Halmos Symbol

Definitions of concepts named for Paul Richard Halmos can be found here.

Publications

• 1938: Invariants of Certain Stochastic Transformation: The Mathematical Theory of Gambling Systems (PhD thesis)
• 1942: Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces
• 1949: Application of the Radon-Nikodym Theorem to the Theory of Sufficient Statistics (with Leonard Savage)
• 1950: Measure Theory
• 1951: Introduction to Hilbert Space and the Theory of Spectral Multiplicity
• 1956: Lectures on Ergodic Theory
• 1959: Entropy in Ergodic Theory
• 1960: Naive Set Theory
• 1962: Algebraic Logic
• 1963: Lectures on Boolean Algebras

• 1967: A Hilbert Space Problem Book
  • 1982: A Hilbert Space Problem Book, 2nd ed.

• 1978: Bounded Integral Operators on $L^2$ Spaces (with V. Sunder)
• 1985: I Want To Be a Mathematician: An Automathography
• 1987: I Have a Photographic Memory
• 1991: Problems for Mathematicians, Young and Old
• 1996: Linear Algebra Problem Book
• 1998: Logic as Algebra (with Steven Givant)
• 2008: Introduction to Boolean Algebras (with Steven Givant)

Notable Quotes

It is security. Certainty. Truth. Beauty. Insight. Structure. Architecture. I see mathematics, the part of human knowledge that I call mathematics, as one thing -- one great, glorious thing.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Paul Richard Halmos": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Halmos, Paul Richard (1916-2006)