Gilbert Agnew Hunt, Jr. (March 4, 1916 – May 30, 2008)
was an American mathematician and amateur
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
player active in the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life and education
Hunt was born in Washington, D.C. and attended
Eastern High School Eastern High School may refer to:
__NOTOC__ United States
*Eastern High School (Pekin, Indiana), Pekin, Indiana
*Eastern High School (Louisville, Kentucky), Middletown, Kentucky
*Eastern High School (Maryland), Baltimore, Maryland
*Eastern High Scho ...
.
Tennis career
Hunt reached the quarterfinals of the
U.S. National Championships in
1938 and
1939
This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history.
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1
** Third Reich
*** Jews are forbidde ...
.
Scientific career
Hunt received his bachelor's degree from
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, presi ...
in 1938 and his Ph.D. from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...
in 1948 under
Salomon Bochner
Salomon Bochner (20 August 1899 – 2 May 1982) was an Austrian mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis, probability theory and differential geometry.
Life
He was born into a Jewish family in Podgórze (near Kraków), then Au ...
. Hunt became a mathematics professor at Princeton University specializing in
probability theory
Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...
,
Markov process
A Markov chain or Markov process is a stochastic model describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event. Informally, this may be thought of as, "What happen ...
es, and
potential theory
In mathematics and mathematical physics, potential theory is the study of harmonic functions.
The term "potential theory" was coined in 19th-century physics when it was realized that two fundamental forces of nature known at the time, namely gra ...
.
The
Hunt process In probability theory, a Hunt process is a strong Markov process which is quasi-left continuous with respect to the minimum completed admissible filtration \_.
It is named after Gilbert Hunt.
See also
* Markov process
A Markov chain or Mar ...
is named after him. He was an Invited Speaker at the
ICM in 1962 in Stockholm. His doctoral students include
Robert McCallum Blumenthal and
Richard M. Dudley
Richard Mansfield Dudley (July 28, 1938 – January 19, 2020) was Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Education and career
Dudley was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his BA at Harvard College and received ...
.
Hunt's theorem
Selected publications
*
*with
Paul Erdős:
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
*
* Kitta MacPherson
''Gilbert Hunt, probability expert, dies at 92'' «Princeton Weekly Bulletin» June 16, 2008, Vol. 97, No. 29.
*
*
Gilbert Agnew Hunt, Jr. - Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
1916 births
2008 deaths
People from Washington, D.C.
American male tennis players
George Washington University alumni
Princeton University alumni
Probability theorists
Cornell University faculty
Princeton University faculty
Eastern High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni
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