Word: fefferman
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Dates: during 1971-1971
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...they are 30. Einstein produced the first part of his theory of relativity at 26, for example, and James D. Watson was 25 when he helped find the double-helixed key to DNA. Still, it was something of a surprise when the University of Chicago last month promoted Charles Fefferman to full professor of mathematics...
Actually, Fefferman has already had a reasonably long career as a mathematician. He began his studies in earnest at age nine: elementary math, he discovered, could not explain college physics. He started taking a few courses at the University of Maryland, near his home in Silver Spring, at twelve. He skipped high school and formally entered the university at 14, He wrote his first major paper at 15; Princeton awarded him a doctorate at 19. He taught there for a year before going to Chicago...
Mathematical Interrelations. Fefferman has written nine major papers on his specialty, Fourier analysis, a branch of mathematics pioneered by Joseph Fourier in the early 19th century. Fourier sought to explain wave phenomena in heat; his theories were later applied to water, light, sound and electricity. Fourier's breakthrough was essential to the development of atomic physics; and all communications equipment-radar, radio, television and so on-is dependent on his formulations...
...Though Fefferman has discovered nothing radically new about the actions of waves, he has revealed mathematical interrelations that were not recognized before. "There is perhaps no one who surpasses him in terms of technical skill," says one Chicago colleague. Indeed, so obvious was Fefferman's ability that no one in the mathematics department raised a quibble at his rise from assistant professor to full professor in a little more than a year. "Everyone in the department recognized his genius," observes another Chicago math professor. "There was really no reason any of those who voted could have laid a glove...
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