Fritz_John

Fritz John
Fritz John (14 June 1910 – 10 February 1994) was a

German-born mathematician specialising in partial Fritz John
differential equations and ill-posed problems. His early
work was on the Radon transform and he is
remembered for John's equation. He was a 1984
MacArthur Fellow.
Life and career

Born 14 June 1910
John was born in Berlin, Imperial Germany, the son of
Berlin, Germany
Hedwig (née Bürgel) and Hermann Jacobson-John.[1]
He studied mathematics from 1929 to 1933 in Died 10 February 1994
(aged 83)
Göttingen where he was influenced by Richard
New York City, United
Courant, among others. Following Hitler's rise to
States
power in 1933 "non-aryans" were being expelled from
teaching posts, and John, being half Jewish, emigrated Nationality American
from Germany to England. Alma mater University of Göttingen
Known for John-Nirenberg Inequality
John published his first paper in 1934 on Morse theory.
John's equation
He was awarded his doctorate in 1934 with a thesis
John ellipsoid
entitled Determining a function from its integrals over
certain manifolds from Göttingen. With Richard Awards Birkhoff Prize (1973)
Courant's assistance he spent a year at St John's Steele Prize (1982)
College, Cambridge. During this time he published Scientific career
papers on the Radon transform, a theme to which he Fields Mathematics
would return throughout his career.
Institutions University of Kentucky
Ballistic Research
John was appointed an assistant professor at the
Laboratory
University of Kentucky in 1935 and he emigrated to
New York University
the United States, becoming naturalised in 1941. He
stayed at Kentucky until 1946, apart from between Doctoral Clifford Gardner
1943 and 1945, during which he did war service for the students Sergiu Klainerman
Ballistic Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving
Ground in Maryland. In 1946 he moved to New York University, where he remained for the rest of his
career.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s he continued to work on the Radon transform, in particular its
application to linear partial differential equations, convex geometry, and the mathematical theory of water
waves. He also worked in numerical analysis and on ill-posed problems. His textbook on partial
differential equations was highly influential and was re-edited many times. He made several contributions
to convex geometry, including his famous result that within every convex body there is one unique
ellipsoid of maximal volume, now called the John Ellipsoid.
From the mid-1950s on, he started working on the theory of equilibrium nonlinear elasticity. He
coauthored with Richard Courant the two-volume work Introduction to Calculus and Analysis, first
published in 1965. He retired in 1981, but continued to work on nonlinear waves.
Honors
He received many awards during his career including the Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics in 1973
and the Steele Prize in 1982. On 5 May 1985, jointly with Olga Arsenievna Oleinik,[2] he was awarded
the laurea honoris causa in mathematics by the Sapienza University of Rome.[3]
Publications
All John's published works, excluding monographs and textbooks, are collected in references (John 1985)
and (John 1985a) with remarks and corrections by himself and commentaries by Sigurdur Helgason, Lars
Hörmander, Sergiu Klainerman, Warner T. Koiter, Heinz-Otto Kreiss, Harold W. Kuhn, Peter Lax, Louis
Nirenberg and Fritz Ursell.
John, Fritz (1955), Plane waves and spherical means applied to partial differential
equations, Interscience Tracts in Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 2 (1st ed.), New York:
Interscience Publishers, pp. VIII+172, MR 0075429 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-
getitem?mr=0075429), Zbl 0067.32101 (https://zbmath.org/?format=complete&q=an:0067.3
2101). John's famous monograph on the Radon transform and its application to partial
differential equations.
John, Fritz (1982), Partial Differential Equations (https://archive.org/details/partialdifferent00j
ohn_0) (4th ed.), New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 0-387-90609-6.
John, Fritz (1985), Moser, Jürgen (ed.), Collected Papers. Volume 1 (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=QNN1LAQh3jMC), Contemporary Mathematicians (in English and German),
Boston – Basel – Stuttgart: Birkhäuser Verlag, p. 648, ISBN 0-8176-3266-2, MR 0809786 (h
ttps://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0809786), Zbl 0584.01025 (https://zbmat
h.org/?format=complete&q=an:0584.01025).
John, Fritz (1985a), Moser, Jürgen (ed.), Collected Papers. Volume 2 (https://books.google.
com/books?id=SS73wAL1wuYC), Contemporary Mathematicians (in English and German),
Boston – Basel – Stuttgart: Birkhäuser Verlag, p. 758, ISBN 0-8176-3267-0, MR 0809787 (h
ttps://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0809787), Zbl 0584.01025 (https://zbmat
h.org/?format=complete&q=an:0584.01025).
See also
Bounded mean oscillation
Fritz John conditions
John ellipsoid
John transform
Notes
1. According to its biography by O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Fritz John" (http
s://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/John.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics
Archive, University of St Andrews.
2. See the relevant entry for further details and information.
3. The complete documentation is collected and commented in reference (Vernacchia-Galli
1986).
References
Klainerman, S. (1998). "On the work and legacy of Fritz John, 1934–1991. Dedicated to the
memory of Fritz John". Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics. 51 (9–10): 991–
1017. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-0312(199809/10)51:9/10<991::aid-cpa3>3.0.co;2-t (https://doi.
org/10.1002%2F%28sici%291097-0312%28199809%2F10%2951%3A9%2F10%3C991%3
A%3Aaid-cpa3%3E3.0.co%3B2-t).
Moser, Jürgen (1995). "Fritz John, 1910–1994" (https://www.ams.org/notices/199502/peopl
e.pdf) (PDF). Notices of the AMS. 42 (1): 256–257.
Vernacchia-Galli, Jole (1986), "Fritz John", Regesto delle lauree honoris causa dal 1944 al
1985, Studi e Fonti per la storia dell'Università di Roma (in Italian), vol. 10, Roma: Edizioni
Dell'Ateneo, pp. 823–844. The "regest of honoris causa degrees from 1944 to 1985"
(English translation of the title) is a detailed and carefully commented regest of all the
documents of the official archive of the Sapienza University of Rome pertaining to the
honoris causa degrees, awarded or not. It includes all the awarding proposals submitted
during the considered period, detailed presentations of the work of the candidate, if
available, and precise references to related articles published on Italian newspapers and
magazines, if the laurea was awarded.
Further reading
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (September 2001), "Fritz John" (https://mathshist
ory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/John.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,
University of St Andrews
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Fritz John

Fritz John (14 June 1910 – 10 February 1994) was a

Life and career

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fritz_John&oldid=1252839531"

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