Brian Blank (September 3, 1953 – December 9, 2018) was a Canadian/American associate professor of mathematics at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

. Blank was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, and earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

. He received his Masters and Ph.D. in 1980 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 ...

, with Anthony Knapp as advisor. His 20th century work involved

harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on unbounded do ...

. He also co-authored a pair of

calculus Calculus is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations. Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the ...

textbooks with his Washington University colleague, Steven Krantz. Titled ''Calculus: Single Variable'' and ''Calculus: Multivariable'', the textbooks and workbooks used to be used in calculus classes at Washington University. Blank died on December 9, 2018, due to complications of acute congestive heart failure.

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* 1953 births 2018 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Academics from Montreal McGill University Faculty of Science alumni Cornell University alumni Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians {{US-mathematician-stub