Abraham Robinson: The Creation of Nonstandard Analysis, A Personal and Mathematical Odyssey

Description

One of the most prominent mathematicians of the twentieth century, Abraham Robinson discovered and developed nonstandard analysis, a rigorous theory of infinitesimals that he used to unite mathematical logic with the larger body of historic and modern mathematics. In this first biography of Robinson, Joseph Dauben reveals the mathematician's person

Joseph Warren Dauben, Winner of the 2012 Albert Leon Whiteman Memorial Prize, American Mathematical Society "This masterpiece of scientific biography presents the eventful life and the pioneering work of a remarkable figure of twentieth-century pure and applied mathematics as well as symbolic logic. [A] well-written and most carefully researched text [that is] enlightening and delightful to read. Dauben alternates two narratives, biography and the progression of science, not omitting daily and academic life, and their background in general and cultural history, of the stations of Robinson's odyssey... The book is bound to become an indispensable source for future historical work."--Detlef Laugwitz, Mathematical Reviews "Robinson, who expressed a certain preference for 'glamour,' led a life that is interesting for its own sake. Dauben's account of it is engrossingly intimate."--Albert C. Lewis, Isis