Victor LaRue Klee, Jr. (September 18, 1925 – August 17, 2007) was a

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 ...

specialising in

convex set In geometry, a set of points is convex if it contains every line segment between two points in the set. For example, a solid cube (geometry), cube is a convex set, but anything that is hollow or has an indent, for example, a crescent shape, is n ...

functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...

analysis of algorithms In computer science, the analysis of algorithms is the process of finding the computational complexity of algorithms—the amount of time, storage, or other resources needed to execute them. Usually, this involves determining a function that r ...

optimization Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...

, 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 ...

. He spent almost his entire career at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Life

Born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, Vic Klee earned his B.A. degree in 1945 with high honors from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

, majoring in mathematics and chemistry. He did his graduate studies, including a thesis on Convex Sets in Linear Spaces, and 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 ...

in mathematics from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

in 1949. After teaching for several years at the University of Virginia, he moved in 1953 to the

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

, where he was a faculty member for 54 years. He died in

Lakewood, Ohio Lakewood is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Established in 1889, it is one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs and part of the Greater Cleveland, Cleveland metropolitan area. The popula ...

Research

Klee wrote more than 240 research papers. He proposed Klee's measure problem and the

art gallery problem The art gallery problem or museum problem is a well-studied visibility problem in computational geometry. It originates from the following real-world problem: "In an art gallery, what is the minimum number of guards who together can observe the ...

. Kleetopes are also named after him, as is the Klee–Minty cube, which shows that the

simplex algorithm In mathematical optimization, Dantzig's simplex algorithm (or simplex method) is a popular algorithm for linear programming. The name of the algorithm is derived from the concept of a simplex and was suggested by T. S. Motzkin. Simplices are ...

for

linear programming Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements and objective are represented by linear function#As a polynomia ...

does not work in

polynomial time In theoretical computer science, the time complexity is the computational complexity that describes the amount of computer time it takes to run an algorithm. Time complexity is commonly estimated by counting the number of elementary operations p ...

in the worst–case scenario.

Service and recognition

Klee served as president of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

from 1971 to 1973. In 1972 he won a Lester R. Ford Award. In 1977, the MAA recognized Klee by presenting him with their Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics.

Notes

External links

Applied Geometry and Discrete Mathematics
a volume dedicated to Klee on his 65th birthday.

* ttp://www.ams.org/featurecolumn/archive/klee.html AMS column: People Making a Difference*
MAA presidents: Victor LaRue Klee
* Shapes of the Future: Some unsolved problems in geometry.
Two dimensionsThree dimensions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klee, Victor 1925 births 2007 deaths Writers from San Francisco University of Virginia alumni University of Washington faculty 20th-century American mathematicians Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Presidents of the Mathematical Association of America Educators from California American science writers Pomona College alumni

Life

Research

Service and recognition

Notes

Further reading

External links