Schiffer, M.M.

Schiffer was considered an authority on complex variables and conformal mapping; his special province was the application of these fields to mathematical physics, particularly to hydrodynamics. A native of Berlin, Schiffer earned his undergraduate degree at Friedrich-Wilhelm University in 1930 and pursued his graduate work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, earning his Ph.D. in 1938. He taught there until 1946, when he moved to the United States. He taught at Harvard and Princeton before joining the Stanford faculty in 1952; he served as executive head of the Mathematics Department from 1954 to 1959. In 1967 he was appointed to the Robert Grimmett Professorship of Mathematics, a position he held until his retirement in 1977. He died in 1997.

From the description of M.M. Schiffer papers, 1953-1979. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702346344

Biography

M. M. Schiffer was considered an authority on complex variables and conformal mapping; his special province was the application of these fields to mathematical physics, particularly to hydrodynamics. A native of Berlin, Schiffer earned his undergraduate degree at Friedrich-Wilhelm University in 1930 and pursued his graduate work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, earning his Ph.D. in 1938. He taught there until 1946, when he moved to the United States and subsequently taught at Harvard and Princeton. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1952, serving as executive head of the Mathematics Department from 1954 to 1959. In 1967 Schiffer was appointed to the Robert Grimmett Professorship of Mathematics, a position he held until his retirement in 1977. While at Stanford he was involved in the School Mathematics Study Group and co-authored many technical reports for the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Laboratory. He died in 1997.

From the guide to the M. M. Schiffer Papers, 1953-1979, (Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.)