Joseph Gillis

Joseph E. Gillis (3 August 1911 – 18 November 1993) was an Israeli mathematician who was one of the founders of the Faculty of Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and served as a Professor of Applied Mathematics there. He made notable contributions to fractal sets, fluid dynamics, random walks, and pioneered the combinatorial theory of special functions of mathematical physics.

Gillis was born on 3 August 1911 in Great Britain. He studied at Trinity College, the University of Cambridge, completing his doctoral thesis under A.S. Besicovitch in 1935. During World War II he worked in Bletchley Park as a cryptographer. He was on the Faculty of Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, between 1937 and 1947.

In 1948 he immigrated to Israel and joined the Ziv Institute (that later became the Weizmann Institute) and was one of the founders of the Department of Applied Mathematics, and also served for some years as the Academic Secretary of the Institute. During the Academic Year 1954-1955 he visited the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, as part of the Electronic Computer Project headed by John von Neumann. He was very active in advancing mathematics education, and chaired the department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute. He also started the Israel Mathematics Olympiad and coached the Israeli team for many years, as well as editing mathematics periodicals for high school students and amateurs.

He was married to Olga Kirsch and had two daughters. He died on November 18, 1993.