Richard M. Pollack (January 25, 1935 – September 18, 2018) was an American geometer who spent most of his career at the

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, where he was Professor Emeritus until his death.

Contributions

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 ...

, Pollack published several papers with

Paul Erdős Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...

and János Pach. Pollack also published papers 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 geom ...

. His work with Jacob E. Goodman includes the first nontrivial bounds on the number of order types and

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 Goodman 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 ...

''. In

real algebraic geometry In mathematics, real algebraic geometry is the sub-branch of algebraic geometry studying real algebraic sets, i.e. real-number solutions to algebraic equations with real-number coefficients, and mappings between them (in particular real polynomi ...

, Pollack wrote a series of papers with Saugata Basu and

Marie-Françoise Roy Marie-Françoise Roy (born 28 April 1950 in Paris) is a French mathematician noted for her work in real algebraic geometry. She has been Professor of Mathematics at the University of Rennes 1 since 1985 and in 2009 was made a ''Chevalier'' of th ...

, as well as a book.

Awards and honors

In 2003, a collection of original research papers in

discrete Discrete may refer to: *Discrete particle or quantum in physics, for example in quantum theory * Discrete device, an electronic component with just one circuit element, either passive or active, other than an integrated circuit * Discrete group, ...

and computational geometry entitled ''Discrete and Computational Geometry: The Goodman–Pollack Festschrift'' was published as a tribute to Jacob E. Goodman and Richard Pollack on the occasion of their 2/3 × 100 birthdays. 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, ...

. A special memorial 556-page issue of ''

'' for Pollack was published in October 2020.

References

*. *. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollack, Richard 1935 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American geometers Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty Brooklyn College alumni Academics from New York City