Karel deLeeuw

American mathematician
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroAmerican mathematician
PlacesUnited States of America
wasMathematician Professor Educator
Work fieldAcademia Mathematics
Gender
Male
Birth20 February 1930, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA
Death18 August 1978Stanford, Santa Clara County, California, USA (aged 48 years)
Star signPisces
Education
Princeton University
Illinois Institute of Technology
The details

Biography

Karel deLeeuw, or de Leeuw ((1930-02-20)February 20, 1930 – (1978-08-18)August 18, 1978), was a mathematics professor at Stanford University, specializing in harmonic analysis and functional analysis.

Life and career

Born in Chicago, Illinois, he attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, earning a B.S. degree in 1950. He stayed at Chicago to earn an M.S. degree in mathematics in 1951, then went to Princeton University, where he obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1954. His thesis, titled "The relative cohomology structure of formations", was written under the direction of Emil Artin.

After first teaching mathematics at Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he joined the Stanford University faculty in 1957, becoming a full professor in 1966. During sabbaticals and leaves he also spent time at the Institute for Advanced Study and at Churchill College, Cambridge (where he was a Fulbright Fellow). He was also a Member-at-Large of the Council of the American Mathematical Society.

Death and legacy

DeLeeuw was murdered by Theodore Streleski, a Stanford doctoral student for 19 years, whom he briefly advised. DeLeeuw's widow Sita deLeeuw was critical of media coverage of the crime, saying, "The media, in their eagerness to give Streleski a forum, become themselves accomplices in the murder—giving Streleski what he wanted in the first place."

A memorial lecture series was established in 1978 by the Stanford Department of Mathematics to honor deLeeuw's memory.

Selected publications

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 12 Jan 2024. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.