Leonard Carlitz (December 26, 1907 – September 17, 1999) was an American mathematician. Carlitz supervised 44 doctorates at Duke University and published over 770 papers.

Leonard Carlitz
Born(1907-12-26)December 26, 1907
DiedSeptember 17, 1999(1999-09-17) (aged 91)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
Known forCarlitz identity
Carlitz–Wan conjecture
Al-Salam–Carlitz polynomials
Tricomi–Carlitz polynomials
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsDuke University
Doctoral advisorHoward Mitchell
Doctoral studentsWaleed Al-Salam
S. Brent Morris
David Roselle (among 44)

Chronology

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  • 1907 Born Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • 1927 BA, University of Pennsylvania
  • 1930 PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1930 under Howard Mitchell, who had studied under Oswald Veblen at Princeton
  • 1930–31 at Caltech with E. T. Bell
  • 1931 married Clara Skaler
  • 1931–32 at Cambridge with G. H. Hardy
  • 1932 Joined the faculty of Duke University where he served for 45 years
  • 1938 to 1973 Editorial Board Duke Mathematical Journal (Managing Editor from 1945.)
  • 1939 Birth of son Michael
  • 1940 Supervision of his first doctoral student E. F. Canaday, awarded 1940
  • 1945 Birth of son Robert
  • 1964 First James B. Duke Professor in Mathematics
  • 1977 Supervised his 44th and last doctoral student, Jo Ann Lutz, awarded 1977
  • 1977 Retired
  • 1990 Death of wife Clara, after 59 years of marriage
  • 1999 September 17 Died in Pittsburgh, PA

Mathematical work

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Publications

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Leonard Carlitz published about 771 technical papers comprising approximately 7,000 pages. The effort to edit his collected works, undertaken originally by Professor John Brillhart, is ongoing.[1]

Carlitz' exceptional productivity is described by David Hayes as follows:[2]

During the early 1960s, when I was one of his graduate students, Carlitz had a National Science Foundation grant that paid for a half-time secretary. On more than one day I observed him reading a journal paper raising a question that he found of interest, that evening writing up a paper of his own answering the question, and having it typed and sent off to a journal the following day.

About 160 articles by Carlitz are about finite fields. The textbook by Rudolf Lidl and Harald Niederreiter on the topic[3] has 141 articles authored or coauthored by Carlitz in its reference list.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Brawley, Joel V.; Brillhart, John; Gould, Henry W. (2012), "Recollections of Leonard Carlitz (including: The publications of Leonard Carlitz)", Acta Arithmetica, 152 (4): 361–405, doi:10.4064/aa152-4-3
  2. ^ Hayes, David R. (2001), "Leonard Carlitz (1907–1999)" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 48 (11): 1322–1324, ISSN 0002-9920, MR 1870635
  3. ^ Lidl, Rudolf; Niederreiter, Harald (1997), Finite Fields (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-39231-0

Further reading

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