Bernard Epstein (10 August 1920,

Harrison, New Jersey Harrison is a town in the western part of Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is a suburb of the nearby city of Newark, and is located from New York City. Once considered "the bee ...

– 30 March 2005,

Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, Maryland ...

) was an American mathematician and physicist who wrote several widely used textbooks on mathematics.Washington Post obituary
Bernard Epstein, College Mathematics Professor, 83
(This obituary erroneously states that Professor Epstein died at age 83 instead of the correct age 84 and also mistakenly states the number of grandchildren as 17 rather than 16 ) Epstein was the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Romania, Yitzkhak Aharon Epstein and Sophie-Sarah née Goldenberg, and was the first person in his family to go to college. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics and physics from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and then in 1947 a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, with thesis advisor

Maurice Heins Maurice Haskell Heins (19 November 1915, Boston – 4 June 2015) was an American mathematician, specializing in complex analysis and harmonic analysis. Heins received his bachelor's degree in 1937, his master's degree in 1939, and his Ph.D. in 194 ...

, from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

with thesis ''Method for the Solution of the

Dirichlet Problem In mathematics, a Dirichlet problem asks for a function which solves a specified partial differential equation (PDE) in the interior of a given region that takes prescribed values on the boundary of the region. The Dirichlet problem can be solved ...

for Certain Types of Domains''. In the early 1940s, he worked as a physicist at what is now the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

. During World War II, he was selected to join the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

, which produced the first atomic bombs. After the war, he worked for two years at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

as a research associate, taught mathematics as an associate professor at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and NYU and as a professor at

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a Private university, private Modern Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.

3 April 2005, Washington Post death notice
EPSTEIN, Dr. BERNARD (Age 84)
/ref> and then spent 21 years on the faculty of the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

as a professor of mathematics until his retirement in 1984. Sabbaticals included

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

, London; The Technion in Haifa, Israel;

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

; and

Air Force Office of Scientific Research The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct-energy based aerospace warf ...

. After retirement, he taught at

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

. Epstein was dissertation advisor for the following Ph.D. students: *Anne Scheerer, University of Pennsylvania, 1953 *William Trench, University of Pennsylvania, 1958 *

Jack Minker Jack Minker (4 July 1927 – 9 April 2021) was a leading authority in artificial intelligence, deductive databases, logic programming and non-monotonic reasoning. He was also an internationally recognized leader in the field of human rights of c ...

, University of Pennsylvania, 1959 *Edwin Sherry, Yeshiva University, 1964 *Darrell L. Hicks, University of New Mexico, 1969 *Harvey Z. Senter, Yeshiva University Upon his death at age 84, he was survived by his wife, five children, and 16 grandchildren. His sixth child, a daughter, predeceased him. Partial Differential Equations

Selected publications

Articles

* * * with S. Bergman: * with J. Lehner: * with A. Scheerer: * with David S. Greenstein and Jack Minker: "An extremal problem with infinitely many interpolation conditions". Annals of Finnish Academy of Science (Soumalainen Tiedaekatamia Tomituksia), Series A:1 Mathematics 250/10, 1958. * with F. Haber: * * with I. J. Schoenberg: * with J. Minker: * * * with M. M. Schiffer: * * with H. Senter: * with J. R. Blum: *

Books

* * * *with Liang-shin Hahn:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Bernard 1920 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American physicists American expatriates in England American expatriates in Israel American mathematicians American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Brown University alumni Jewish American physicists Manhattan Project people Mathematics writers New York University alumni People from Harrison, New Jersey University of New Mexico faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty