Marvin Isadore Knopp (January 4, 1933 – December 24, 2011) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who worked primarily in

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

. He made notable contributions to the theory of

modular form In mathematics, a modular form is a holomorphic function on the complex upper half-plane, \mathcal, that roughly satisfies a functional equation with respect to the group action of the modular group and a growth condition. The theory of modul ...

Life and education

Knopp was born on January 4, 1933, in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He received his

PhD 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 graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

under Paul T. Bateman from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

in 1958 where he became friends with fellow student

Gene Golub Gene Howard Golub (February 29, 1932 – November 16, 2007), was an American numerical analyst who taught at Stanford University as Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science and held a courtesy appointment in electrical engineering. Personal ...

., Video of Knopp's Talk at Gene Golub Memorial (Talk #3), retrieved 2011-12-29. Over the course of his career, he advised twenty Ph.D. students.
Knopp's Math Genealogy Entry, retrieved 2011-12-29. He is the father of pianist Seth Knopp, and of Yehudah, Abby, and Elana.
Marvin Knopp Tribute Blog, retrieved 2012-01-09. Marvin was married to Josephine Zadovsky Knopp for 25 years. Knopp died on December 24, 2011, during a vacation in Florida. Marvin found happiness from his children, old movies, great music and numbers. During the 6 years following his death, his papers and books were organized (with the help of Wladimer Pribitkin), his photographs and his mathematical correspondence, were donated to the

American Institute of Mathematics The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) is one of nine mathematical institutes in the United States, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It was founded in 1994 by John Fry, co-founder of Fry's Electronics, and originally located ...

(AIM). On AIM's website, you can find 131 o
Knopp's reprints

Personal life

Knopp was born in

in 1933. He was an

Ashkenazi Jew Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

Career

After receiving his

in 1958, Knopp taught at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

and then, for a few years, at the

University of Illinois Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

before moving, in 1976, to

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

where he stayed until his sudden death in 2011., Temple University Geometry Blog, retrieved 2011-12-29. Knopp was a leading expert in the theory of modular forms and a pioneering figure in the theory o
Eichler cohomology
modular integrals and generalized modular forms. He was closely associated with Emil Grosswald.
, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Mathematics Newsletter Spring 1991, retrieved 2011-12-29. In Jean Dieudonné, Jean Dieudonné's influential book ''A Panorama of Pure Mathematics'' (

Academic Press Academic Press (AP) is an academic book publisher founded in 1941. It launched a British division in the 1950s. Academic Press was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier said in 2000 it would buy Harcourt, a deal complete ...

, 1982), he is mentioned (p. 95) as one of those who "made substantial contributions" to the theory of modular forms.

Selected publications

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References

External links