Richard Steven Ellis (May 15, 1947 – July 2, 2018) was an American mathematician. He was born on May 15, 1947, in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and ...

, to parents Murray and Helen. Ellis graduated from

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...

and attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he studied German literature and mathematics. He pursued graduate study 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), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...

. In 1972, he received his PhD from the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

for his thesis ''Chapman-Eskog-Hilbert Expansion for Models of the Boltzmann Equation'' under the supervision of

Henry McKean Henry P. McKean, Jr. (born 1930 in Wenham, Massachusetts) is an American mathematician at the Courant Institute in New York University. He works in various areas of analysis. He obtained his PhD in 1955 from Princeton University under William Fel ...

. He began teaching at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

and left for the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

in 1975. In 1984, he improved a key result in large deviations theory originally due to

Jürgen Gärtner Jürgen Gärtner (born 1950 in Reichenbach, Oberlausitz) is a German mathematician, specializing in probability theory and analysis. Gärtner graduated in 1973 with ''Diplom'' from TU Dresden. He received in 1976 his Ph.D. from Lomonosov Univers ...

, which is now known as Gärtner-Ellis Theorem. He was named fellow of the

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...

in 1999. Ellis died of bile duct cancer in New York City on July 2, 2018, aged 71.

References

External links

Oral history interview transcript with Richard Ellis on 27 July 2007, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Richard S. 1947 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians People from Brookline, Massachusetts Writers from Boston Harvard College alumni Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences alumni Northwestern University faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from cholangiocarcinoma in the United States