Elliott Ward Cheney, Jr.
| Elliott Ward Cheney Jr. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 28, 1929 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania |
| Died | July 13, 2016 (aged 87) |
| Alma mater |
Lehigh University University of Kansas |
| Known for | approximation theory research, mathematics textbooks |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Texas at Austin |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Schatten |
Elliott Ward Cheney Jr. (June 28, 1929 – July 13, 2016) was an American mathematician and an Emeritus Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. Known to his friends and colleagues as Ward Cheney, he was one of the pioneers in the fields of approximation theory and numerical analysis. His 1966 book, An Introduction to Approximation Theory, remains in print and is "highly respected and well known", "a small book almost encyclopedic in character", and "is a classic with few competitors".
The second of two children of E. W. Cheney, Sr., and Carleton (Pratt) Cheney, Elliott Ward Cheney Jr., was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Washington, New Jersey, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Ward began clarinet studies at age ten and would play in chamber music groups throughout his life.
Ward Cheney was a 1947 graduate of Fountain Hill High School, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1951, he earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Lehigh University, where his father was a physics professor. During undergraduate summers, Ward worked for the United States Forest Service, where he met Elizabeth Jean "Beth", whom he married in 1952. The young couple resided in Lawrence, Kansas, while Ward studied and served as a mathematics instructor at The University of Kansas, earning his PhD in 1957. Ward had three children with his first wife, Beth, all of whom earned doctorates: daughter Margaret is a professor of mathematics, son David is a manager of international research projects, and son Elliott is a professional cellist. Their mother Beth remarried in 1975 and died in 1991. Ward and his wife Victoria had been together since 1983.
Following the launch of Sputnik 1 by the USSR in 1957, the United States intensified its focus on their aerospace program. Cheney became a research scientist at Convair Astronautics in San Diego, California, where his mathematical team worked on calculations for the Atlas rocket—which would take John Glenn into space.
Cheney also worked for Space Technology, near Los Angeles, and taught at UCLA, with visiting positions at Michigan State University and Iowa State University. In addition, Ward was a consultant and/or a guest worker at Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories, The Aerospace Corporation, and IBM Research Laboratory. In the summers of 1961–63, he was director of the NSF Summer Institute in Numerical Analysis (UCLA).
...
Wikipedia