Gilbert Baumslag (April 30, 1933 – October 20, 2014) was a Distinguished Professor at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

, with joint appointments in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

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, ...

, and

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 was director of th
Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software
which grew out of the MAGNUS

computational group theory In mathematics, computational group theory is the study of group (mathematics), groups by means of computers. It is concerned with designing and analysing algorithms and data structures to compute information about groups. The subject has attracte ...

project he also headed. Baumslag was also the organizer of the New York Group Theory Seminar. Baumslag graduated from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

with a

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

Honours (Masters) and

D.Sc. A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

He earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

in 1958; his thesis, written under the direction of

Bernhard Neumann Bernhard Hermann Neumann (15 October 1909 – 21 October 2002) was a German-born British-Australian mathematician, who was a leader in the study of group theory. Early life and education After gaining a D.Phil. from Friedrich-Wilhelms Universi ...

, was titled ''Some aspects of groups with unique roots''. His contributions include the

Baumslag–Solitar group In the mathematics, mathematical field of group theory, the Baumslag–Solitar groups are examples of two-generator one-relator groups that play an important role in combinatorial group theory and geometric group theory as (counter)examples and ...

s and parafree groups. Baumslag was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in 1968–69. In 2012, he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2012-11-10.

Works

* Gilbert Baumslag, ''Groups with the same lower central sequence as a relatively free group. I. The groups'',

Transactions of the American Mathematical Society The ''Transactions of the American Mathematical Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of pure and applied mathematics published by the American Mathematical Society. It was established in 1900. As a requirement, all articles must ...

129 (1967), 308–321. * Gilbert Baumslag, ''Groups with the same lower central sequence as a relatively free group. II. Properties'', Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 142 (1969), 507–538. * Gilbert Baumslag and Donald Solitar, ''Some two-generator one-relator non-Hopfian groups'',

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society The ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' is a quarterly mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society. Scope It publishes surveys on contemporary research topics, written at a level accessible to non-experts. ...

68 (1962), 199–201.

Notes

External links

Gilbert Baumslag
at CCNY
Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software
, at CCNY
New York Group Theory Seminar
at The CUNY Graduate Center 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Group theorists City College of New York faculty 1933 births 2014 deaths Alumni of the University of Manchester University of the Witwatersrand alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Fellows of the American Mathematical Society {{US-mathematician-stub