David Wolfe is a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and amateur Go player.

Education and career

Wolfe graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1985, with a bachelor's degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He obtained a Ph.D. in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1994, with a dissertation ''Mathematics of Go: Chilling Corridors'' combining both subjects and supervised by

Elwyn Berlekamp Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp (September 6, 1940 – April 9, 2019) was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.Gustavus Adolphus College Gustavus Adolphus College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans led by Eric Norelius and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Gustavu ...

from 1996 to 2008, and then as an adjunct faculty member at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

, he moved from academia to the software industry. Wolfe was a fan of

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writin ...

and in 2009 he teamed up with Tom M. Rodgers to edit a Gardner tribute book.

Books

Wolfe is the author of books on

combinatorial game theory Combinatorial game theory is a branch of mathematics and theoretical computer science that typically studies sequential games with perfect information. Research in this field has primarily focused on two-player games in which a ''position'' ev ...

, including: *''Mathematical Go: Chilling Gets the Last Point'' (with

Elwyn Berlekamp Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp (September 6, 1940 – April 9, 2019) was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.A K Peters A K Peters, Ltd. was a publisher of scientific and technical books, specializing in mathematics and in computer graphics, robotics, and other fields of computer science. They published the journals '' Experimental Mathematics'' and the '' Journal ...

, 1994; also published as ''Mathematical Go Endgames: Nightmares for the Professional Go Player'', Ishi Press, 1994) *''Lessons in Play: An Introduction to Combinatorial Game Theory'' (with Michael H. Albert and Richard Nowakowski, A K Peters, 2007; 2nd ed.,

CRC Press The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information technol ...

, 2019)Reviews of ''Lessons in Play'': *
updated August 2019 for 2nd ed.
* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, David Combinatorial game theorists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Nationality missing American Go players Go (game) writers Cornell University alumni UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Gustavus Adolphus College faculty Academic staff of Dalhousie University