Marvin Knopp

Marvin Isadore Knopp (January 4, 1933 – December 24, 2011) was an American mathematician who worked primarily in number theory. He made notable contributions to the theory of modular forms.

Life and education

Knopp was born on 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. He received his PhD under Paul T. Bateman from the University of Illinois in 1958 where he became friends with fellow student Gene Golub. Over the course of his career, he advised twenty Ph.D. students. He is the father of pianist Seth Knopp, and of Yehudah, Abby, and Elana. Marvin was married to Dr. Josephine Zadovsky Knopp for 25 years but the marriage ended in divorce. Knopp died on December 24, 2011 during a vacation in Florida. Marvin found happiness from his children, old movies, great music and numbers. The last 30 years of Knopp's life was shared with Phyllis Zemble. During the 6 years following his death, Zemble organized his papers and books (with the help of Wladimer Pribitkin), his photographs and his mathematical correspondence, which she donated to the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM). On AIM's website, you can find 131 of Knopp's reprints.

Career

After receiving his PhD in 1958, Knopp taught at the University of Wisconsin and then, for a few years, at the University of Illinois Chicago before moving, in 1976, to Temple University where he stayed until his sudden death in 2011. He was closely associated with Emil Grosswald. In Jean Dieudonne's influential book A Panorama of Pure Mathematics (Academic Press, 1982), he is mentioned (p. 95) as one of those who "made substantial contributions" to the theory of modular forms.

Selected publications

• Knopp, Marvin (1970). Modular Functions in Analytic Number Theory. : Rand McNally. ISBN 0-528-60000-1.