Jerald Ericksen
| Jerald Ericksen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jerald LaVerne Ericksen December 20, 1924 Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Fields |
Continuum mechanics Liquid crystals |
| Institutions |
Johns Hopkins University University of Minnesota |
| Alma mater | Indiana University |
| Doctoral advisor | David Gilbarg |
| Doctoral students |
Constantine Dafermos Romesh Batra Richard D. James |
| Notable awards |
Timoshenko Medal (1979) Bingham Medal(1968) |
Jerald LaVerne Ericksen (born December 20, 1924) is an American mathematician specializing in continuum mechanics.
Jerald was born in Portland, Oregon. His father Adolf worked at a Portland creamery and became adept at judging the quality of butter. Later his father acquired a small creamery in Vancouver, Washington where the family moved. Jerald’s brother A. Erwin was born there, and Jerald helped out in the creamery.
In the fall of 1942 he entered Oregon State College in Corvallis. When he reached eighteen years of age he enlisted in the U. S. Navy. He was trained as an officer, first at University of Idaho, Pocatello, and then was transferred to NROTC at the University of Washington, Seattle. During his 85.5 weeks of training he met his future wife Marion Pook. On active duty he was part of Landing Craft Infantry, assigned the task of launching rockets to clear beaches for invasion in the Philippines. On the termination of hostilities he was shipped back to San Diego. He married Marion on February 24, 1946 and resigned from the service that summer.
Ericksen enrolled in University of Washington and was able to obtain his bachelor's degree in a year due to credits accumulated in his Navy training. He was a mathematics major and had a minor in Naval Science. His first graduate school was Oregon State where he had Howard Eves as an advisor. Ericksen went on to Indiana University seeking to find applications, besides teaching, for his mathematical skill. There he came under the influence of David Gilbarg, Vaclav Hlavaty, Eberhard Hopf, and Max Zorn. Other influences included Bill Gustin, Tracy Thomas, and George Whaples. Most significantly, it was in Bloomington that he began to work with Clifford Truesdell who was criticizing continuum theories. In his autobiography of 2005, Ericksen says "since then I have been trying to better understand the formulation of and techniques for exploring [continuum] theories." Ericksen obtained his Ph.D. in 1951. Jerald and Marion began their family with daughter Lynn in Bloomington.
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