Jack Kenneth Hale (3 October 1928 – 9 December 2009) was an American mathematician working primarily in the field of

dynamical systems In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...

and

functional differential equation A functional differential equation is a differential equation with deviating argument. That is, a functional differential equation is an equation that contains a function and some of its derivatives evaluated at different argument values. Function ...

Biography

Jack Hale defended his Ph.D. thesis "On the Asymptotic Behavior of the Solutions of Systems of Differential Equations" at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

under Lamberto Cesari in 1954;J. K. Hale on the Mathematics Genealogy Project
/ref> his undergraduate years were spent at

Berea College Berea College is a private liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky. Founded in 1855, Berea College was the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated. It was integrated from as early as 1866 ...

, where he was studying Mathematics until 1949. In 1954–57, Hale worked as a Systems Analyst at

Sandia Corporation Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Bas ...

and in 1957–58 he was a staff scientist at Remington Rand Univac. During 1958–64, he was a permanent member of the Research Institute for Advanced Studies ( RIAS) in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. He became a faculty member at

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 ' ...

in 1964 and worked in the Division of Applied Mathematics for 24 years until 1988, serving as director of the Lefschetz Center for Dynamical Systems for a number of years. In 1988 Hale moved to the School of Mathematics at the

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

where he co-founded the Center for Dynamical Systems and Nonlinear Studies (CDSNS), serving as the director of the CDSNS from 1989 to 1998. In 1964, together with Joseph LaSalle, Hale became the founding editor of the ''Journal of Differential Equations'', of which he was later Chief Editor. The following year he shared the 1965

Chauvenet Prize The Chauvenet Prize is an annual award given by the Mathematical Association of America in recognition of an outstanding expository article on a mathematical topic. It consists of a prize of $1,000 and a certificate. The Chauvenet Prize was the ...

with LaSalle for their exposition in the piece on ''Differential Equations: Linearity vs. Nonlinearity'' published in the SIAM Review. In 1999 he received an honorary doctorate from the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock () is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Se ...

(Germany). Throughout his career, Hale published 15 books, over 200 research papers, and supervised 48 Ph.D. students. He was an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

, a Corresponding Member of the

Brazilian Academy of Sciences Brazilian commonly refers to: * Brazil, a country * Brazilians, its people * Brazilian Portuguese, its dialect Brazilian may also refer to: * "The Brazilian", a 1986 instrumental music piece by Genesis * Brazilian Café, Baghdad, Iraq (1937) * Bra ...

, and a Foreign Member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

. The biennial Jack K. Hale Award was established in 2013 by

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, ...

with the aim of distinguishing researchers who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of dynamics and differential equations.

Selected works

;Books * Original edition published under title ''Functional differential equations.'' * * * * * * * Original edition published under title ''An introduction to infinite-dimensional dynamical systems—geometric theory.'' ;Articles * * * Hale, J.K
"Linear Functional-Differential Equations with Constant Coefficients"
''RIAS Technical Report'', 1963.

References

External links

* * Yingfei Yi
"An interview with Jack K. Hale"
''Dynamical Systems Magazine'', November 18, 2003, Atlanta.
Lefschetz Center for Dynamical Systems
at

* Chow SN., Mallet-Paret J
"Obituary of Jack K. Hale"
''Journal of Dynamics and Differential Equations'', volume 22, issue 2, pp. 73–78, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hale, Jack K. 1928 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians American control theorists Purdue University alumni Brown University faculty Georgia Tech faculty People from Letcher County, Kentucky