Philip J. Davis (January 2, 1923 – March 14, 2018) was an American academic

applied 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, structure, space, models, and change. History One ...

. Davis was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was known for his work in

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods t ...

and

approximation theory In mathematics, approximation theory is concerned with how functions can best be approximated with simpler functions, and with quantitatively characterizing the errors introduced thereby. Note that what is meant by ''best'' and ''simpler'' ...

, as well as his investigations in the history and

philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in people ...

. He earned his degrees in mathematics from Harvard University (SB, 1943; PhD, 1950, advisor Ralph P. Boas, Jr.), and his final position was Professor Emeritus at the Division of Applied Mathematics at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provide ...

. He served briefly in an aerodynamics research position in the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

in World War II before joining the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology). He became Chief of Numerical Analysis there and worked on the well-known

Abramowitz and Stegun ''Abramowitz and Stegun'' (''AS'') is the informal name of a 1964 mathematical reference work edited by Milton Abramowitz and Irene Stegun of the United States National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now the ''National Institute of Standards and T ...

''Handbook of Mathematical Functions'' before joining Brown in 1963. He was awarded the Chauvenet Prize for mathematical writing in 1963 for an article on the

gamma function In mathematics, the gamma function (represented by , the capital letter gamma from the Greek alphabet) is one commonly used extension of the factorial function to complex numbers. The gamma function is defined for all complex numbers except t ...

, and won numerous other prizes, including being chosen to deliver the 1991 Hendrick Lectures of the MAA (which became the basis for his book ''Spirals: From Theodorus to Chaos''). He was a frequent invited lecturer and authored several books. Among the best known are '' The Mathematical Experience'' (with Reuben Hersh), a popular survey of modern mathematics and its

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

; ''Methods of Numerical Integration'' (with Philip Rabinowitz), long the standard work on the subject of quadrature; and ''Interpolation and Approximation'', still an important reference in this area. For '' The Mathematical Experience'' (1981), Davis and Hersh won a

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in Science."National Book Awards – 1983"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-03-07. This was the 1983 award for paperback Science.
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories, and several nonfiction subcategories including General Nonfiction. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one. Davis also wrote an autobiography, ''The Education of a Mathematician''; some of his other books include autobiographical sections as well. In addition, he published works of fiction. His best-known book outside the field of mathematics is ''The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn'' (1983, 2nd ed. 1989), which "has raised Digression into a literary form" (Gerard Piel); it takes off from the name of the Russian mathematician Tschebyscheff, and in the course of explaining why he insists on that "barbaric, Teutonic, non-standard orthography" (in the words of a reader of ''Interpolation and Approximation'' who wrote him to complain), he digresses in many amusing directions. Davis died on March 14, 2018, at the age of 95.

Publications (Books Only)

*Ancient Loons: Stories Pingree Told Me (2016) *Circulant matrices *Descartes' Dream: The World According to Mathematics by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh *Interpolation and approximation *Mathematical Encounters of the Second Kind *Mathematics & Common Sense: A Case of Creative Tension (2006) *Mathematics, Substance and Surmise: Views on the Meaning and Ontology of Mathematics by Ernest Davis and Philip J. Davis *Methods of numerical integration *Numerical Integration by Philip Davis, Philip J & Rabinowitz *Spirals: From Theodorus to Chaos *The Companion Guide to the Mathematical Experience: by Philip J. Davis and Reuben *The Education of a Mathematician (2000) *The Lore of Large Numbers (1975) *The Mathematical Experience (Modern Birkhäuser Classics) (2011) *The mathematics of matrices: A first book of matrix theory and linear algebra *The Schwarz Function and Its Applications ( Carus Mathematical Monographs #17) (1974) *The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn *Thomas Gray in Copenhagen: In Which the Philosopher Cat Meets the Ghost of Hans Christian Andersen (1995)
''Unity and Disunity and Other Mathematical Essays''
American Math Society, (2015)

Notes

References

External links

Personal web site
at Brown University.

at Brown University.

at

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*
Bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Philip J. 1923 births 2018 deaths People from Lawrence, Massachusetts 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Brown University faculty Harvard University alumni National Book Award winners Numerical analysts Writers from Massachusetts Mathematicians from Massachusetts American military personnel of World War II