Hermann Flaschka (25 March 1945 – 18 March 2021) was an Austrian-American

mathematical physicist Mathematical physics is the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of ...

and

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

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 ...

at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

, known for his important contributions in completely integrable systems (

soliton In mathematics and physics, a soliton is a nonlinear, self-reinforcing, localized wave packet that is , in that it preserves its shape while propagating freely, at constant velocity, and recovers it even after collisions with other such local ...

equations).

Childhood

Flaschka had lived in the USA since his family immigrated when he was a teenager. They lived in Atlanta, GA. His father Hermenegild Arved Flaschka (1915 - 1999) taught Chemistry at Georgia Tech. Hermann graduated from Druid Hills High School with the class of 1962 and received his Bachelor's degree at

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

in 1967. Among other achievements there he also received the "William Gilmer Perry Awards for Freshman English" in 1963, despite the fact that he's not a native speaker.

Career

He received his Ph.D. from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1970. His advisor was

Gilbert Strang William Gilbert Strang (born November 27, 1934) is an American mathematician known for his contributions to Finite elements, finite element theory, the calculus of variations, wavelet analysis and linear algebra. He has made many contributions ...

and the title of his thesis ''Asymptotic Expansions and Hyperbolic Equations with Multiple Characteristics''. He then worked as post-doc at the

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

until 1972. He was a professor at the

until his retirement in 2017. He lectured as visiting professor at several institutions, among them the

Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate programs and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was established in 1896 and enrolled over 4 ...

(1978/79), the Kyoto RIMS (1980/81) and the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

(2002). In 1995 he received the

Norbert Wiener Prize The Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics is a $5000 prize awarded, every three years, for an outstanding contribution to "applied mathematics in the highest and broadest sense." It was endowed in 1967 in honor of Norbert Wiener by MIT's mat ...

in Applied Mathematics. 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, ...

Work

He made important contributions to the theory of completely integrable systems in particular the

Toda lattice The Toda lattice, introduced by , is a simple model for a one-dimensional crystal in solid state physics. It is famous because it is one of the earliest examples of a non-linear completely integrable system. It is given by a chain of particles wi ...

and the Korteweg–de Vries equation. In 1980 he co-founded ''

Physica D Physica may refer to: * Physics (Aristotle) * ''Physica'', a twelfth-century medical text by Hildegard of Bingen * ''Physica'' (journal), a Dutch scientific journal :* ''Physica A'' :* ''Physica B'' ;* ''Physica C'' :* ''Physica D'' :* ''P ...

: Nonlinear Phenomena'' for which he also served as co-editor for many years. Publisher

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

now lists him as honorary editor.

References

External links

1995 Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics, Notices AMSHomepage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flaschka, Hermann 1945 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Austrian mathematicians University of Arizona faculty Georgia Tech alumni Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni