Jeffrey Brian Remmel (October 12, 1948 September 29, 2017) was an American mathematician employed by the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. Republished in the
Chicago Tribune
'. At the time of his death he held a distinguished professorship—his title was Distinguished Professor of Mathematics; Also published as
memorial by UC San Diego
he also held a position as a professor of

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, ...

Personal life

Remmel was born on October 12, 1948, in

Clintonville, Wisconsin Clintonville is a city in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,591 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The area that became Clintonville was first settled in March, 1855. History Clintonville lies within an ...

. He died aged 68 at

Scripps Memorial Hospital Scripps Health is a nonprofit health care system based in San Diego, California. The system includes five hospital campuses and 30 outpatient centers and clinics, and treats more than 600,000 patients annually through 3,000 affiliated physicians. ...

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...

on September 29, 2017, with a reported cause of death being a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

Education

Remmel received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in mathematics from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

in 1970. Later, he received two degrees from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

—a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in mathematics and a

Doctor of Philosophy 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 Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

, also in math (1972 and 1974, respectively). At Cornell, he was advised by

Anil Nerode Anil Nerode (born 1932) is an American mathematician, known for his work in mathematical logic and for his many-decades tenure as a professor at Cornell University. He received his undergraduate education and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Uni ...

, and his dissertation was entitled ''Co-recursively Enumerable Structures''. Also appears i
Association for Symbolic Logic November 2017 newsletter

Career

After obtaining his Ph.D., though before he had published a single paper, Remmel joined the faculty of the

as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

, where he worked for his entire career. Remmel was noted for his successful publication record in two separate fields—

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

, in which he published in

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...

; and

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

, where he published papers on

algebraic combinatorics Algebraic combinatorics is an area of mathematics that employs methods of abstract algebra, notably group theory and representation theory, in various combinatorial contexts and, conversely, applies combinatorial techniques to problems in algeb ...

. He published over 20 papers in logic with Victor W. Marek, and Remmel's more prominent career in combinatorics included over 20 co-authored papers with

Sergey Kitaev Sergey Kitaev (Russian: Сергей Владимирович Китаев; born 1 January 1975 in Ulan-Ude) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. He obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from the Univers ...

. A double issue of the ''Journal of Combinatorics'' was published in his memory. Remmel's work is highly cited in the fields of

vector spaces In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set whose elements, often called ''vectors'', can be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called ''scalars''. The operations of vector addition and sc ...

, including computably enumerable sets and vector spaces.

References

Notes

1948 births 2017 deaths People from Clintonville, Wisconsin People from La Jolla, San Diego Swarthmore College alumni Cornell University alumni University of California, San Diego faculty American mathematicians American mathematics educators Mathematical logicians Computability theorists American computer scientists American computer science educators Combinatorialists {{Authority control