Jacob Eli Goodman (November 15, 1933 – October 10, 2021) was an American geometer who spent most of his career 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 within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
, where he was professor emeritus.
Research
Together, he and
Richard M. Pollack, his long-term collaborator, introduced concepts such as "allowable sequences of permutations" and "wiring diagrams", which have played an important role in
discrete geometry
Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic ge ...
, specifically in the study of arrangements of
pseudolines and (more generally)
oriented matroid
An oriented matroid is a mathematical structure that abstracts the properties of directed graphs, vector arrangements over ordered fields, and hyperplane arrangements over ordered fields. In comparison, an ordinary (i.e., non-oriented) matroid ab ...
s. His work with Pollack includes such results as the first nontrivial bounds on the number of order types of
polytope
In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides ('' faces''). Polytopes are the generalization of three-dimensional polyhedra to any number of dimensions. Polytopes may exist in any general number of dimensions as an ...
s, and a generalization of the
Hadwiger transversal theorem to higher dimensions. He and Pollack were the founding editors of the journal ''
Discrete & Computational Geometry
'' Discrete & Computational Geometry'' is a peer-reviewed mathematics journal published quarterly by Springer. Founded in 1986 by Jacob E. Goodman and Richard M. Pollack, the journal publishes articles on discrete geometry and computational ge ...
''.
Goodman was the originator of the "pancake problem", an elementary question on permutations which he published under the pseudonym Harry Dweighter.
The problem gave rise to the concept of
pancake sorting.
Goodman co-edited the book ''Handbook of Discrete and Computational Geometry'' with
Joseph O'Rourke.
Music
In 1999, Goodman returned to an old love, musical composition, and in 2002 was founding president of the New York Composers Circle.
Awards
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 2013-01-19.
Selected publications
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Jacob E.
1933 births
2021 deaths
New York University alumni
Columbia University alumni
City College of New York faculty
Researchers in geometric algorithms
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
People from Lynn, Massachusetts