Alberto Calderón | |
---|---|
Born |
Mendoza, Argentina |
September 14, 1920
Died | April 16, 1998 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
(aged 77)
Nationality | Argentinian |
Alma mater | University of Buenos Aires |
Known for |
Partial differential equations Singular integral operators Interpolation spaces |
Spouse(s) |
Mabel Molinelli Wells (m. 1950; death 1985) Alexandra Bellow (m. 1989) |
Children | 2 |
Awards |
Bôcher Memorial Prize (1979) Leroy P. Steele Prize (1989) Wolf Prize (1989) Steele Prize (1989) National Medal of Science (1991) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Mathematics |
Doctoral advisor | Antoni Zygmund |
Doctoral students |
Irwin Bernstein Miguel de Guzmán[] Carlos Kenig Cora Sadosky |
Alberto Pedro Calderón (September 14, 1920 – April 16, 1998) was an Argentinian mathematician. His name is associated with the University of Buenos Aires, but first and foremost with the University of Chicago, where Calderón and his mentor, the analyst Antoni Zygmund, developed the theory of singular integral operators. This created the "Chicago School of (hard) Analysis" (sometimes simply known as the "Calderón-Zygmund School"). Calderón’s work ranged over a wide variety of topics: from singular integral operators to partial differential equations, from interpolation theory to Cauchy integrals on Lipschitz curves, from ergodic theory to inverse problems in electrical prospection. Calderón’s work has also had a powerful impact on practical applications including signal processing, geophysics, and tomography.
Alberto Pedro Calderón was born on September 14, 1920, in Mendoza, Argentina, to Don Pedro Calderón, a physician (urologist), and Haydée. He had several siblings, including a younger brother, Calixto Pedro Calderón, also a mathematician. His father encouraged his mathematical studies. After his mother's unexpected death when he was twelve, he spent two years at the Montana Knabeninstitut, a boys' boarding school near Zürich in Switzerland, where he was mentored by Save Bercovici, who interested him in mathematics. He then completed his high school studies in Mendoza.
Persuaded by his father that he could not make a living as a mathematician, he entered the University of Buenos Aires, where he studied engineering. After graduating in civil engineering in 1947, he got a job in the research laboratory of the geophysical division of the state-owned oil company, the YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales).
While still working at YPF, Calderón became acquainted with the mathematicians at the University of Buenos Aires: Julio Rey Pastor, the first Professor in the Institute of Mathematics, his Assistant Alberto González Domínguez (who became his mentor and friend), Luis Santaló and Manuel Balanzat. At the YPF Lab Calderón first conceived the possibility of determining the conductivity of a body by making electrical measurements at the boundary; he did not publish his results until several decades later, in 1980, in his short Brazilian paper, see also On an inverse boundary value problem and the Commentary by Gunther Uhlmann, which pioneered a whole new area of mathematical research on “inverse problems”.