Philosophy
Oded Schramm
December 10th, 1961 to September 1st, 2008
Oded Schramm, who melded ideas from two branches of mathematics into an equation that applies to a multitude of physics problems from the percolation of water through rocks to the tangling of polymers, died Sept. 1 in a fall at Guye Peak near Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. He was 46.
The death of Dr. Schramm, an avid and experienced hiker, was confirmed by the King County Sheriff's Department. His wife, Avivit, had reported him missing on the evening of Sept. 1 when he did not return as planned. His body was found the next morning.
Dr. Schramm's equation analyzes behavior in two-dimensional systems near "phase transitions" when order suddenly appears out of disorder, like tiny magnets that suddenly line up in the same direction. Physicists had worked out rough answers to the problems, but Dr. Schramm was able to provide rigorous, exact calculations.
"It was a revelation to both mathematicians and physicists," Jennifer Tour Chayes, who hired Dr. Schramm for Microsoft Research’s theory group in 1999, said of Dr. Schramm's insights.
For that work, published in 2000, Dr. Schramm received an array of accolades and prizes. If Dr. Schramm had been born three weeks and a day later, he would almost certainly have been one of the winners of the Fields Medal, perhaps the highest honor in mathematics, in 2002.
But the Fields Medals, which honor groundbreaking work by young mathematicians, are awarded only once every four years and only to mathematicians who are 40 or under. Dr. Schramm was born on Dec. 10, 1961; the cutoff birth date for the 2002 Fields was Jan. 1, 1962.
Wendelin Werner, a younger mathematician who collaborated with Dr. Schramm on follow-up research, won a Fields in 2006.
Born in Jerusalem, Oded Schramm received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from Hebrew University in 1986 and a master's in mathematics a year later. Moving to the United States, he completed his doctoral degree in mathematics at Princeton in 1990.
After working at the University of California, San Diego, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Dr. Schramm joined the theory group of Microsoft Research, an arm of Microsoft dedicated to basic science akin to the old Bell Laboratories.
"He was the most theoretical in the theory group," said Yuval Peres, the current head of the theory group.
For his doctoral thesis, Dr. Schramm worked in the mathematical field of topology. Then, unlike most mathematicians who specialize in a niche, he jumped between varied branches of mathematics. He took an equation first developed in 1923 by the mathematician Charles Loewner in a field known as conformal geometry and added ideas from probability theory. Dr. Schramm added random, or stochastic, variables to Dr. Loewner's equation and called the result stochastic Loewner evolution.
The approach was unique and proved applicable to a range of physics problems.
"He brought together two branches of mathematics that were previously unrelated: conformal geometry and probability theory," Dr. Chayes said. "Any time you can relate two different fields obviously there is huge excitement about that. It just opens up all kinds of new horizons in mathematics."
His awards included the Clay Research Award in 2002, the Henri Poincaré prize in 2003, the Polya Prize in 2006 and the Ostrowski Prize last year. He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences this year.
Dr. Schramm, who lived in Sammamish, Wash., is survived by his wife and two children, Tselil and Pele.
Dr. Chayes recalled in the summer of 2000 when Dr. Schramm summarized his year of work to her in a typical understatement: "He said simply: 'I think I’ve done some very nice work on two-dimensional systems this year. You might want to look at it.'"
That was the stochastic Loewner evolution equation, now often called Schramm-Loewner evolution. "He would always look very embarrassed when we called it the Schramm-Loewner equation," Dr. Chayes said.
Oded Schramm Home Page
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Philosophy
Deceased--Oded Schramm
Oded SchrammDecember 10th, 1961 to September 1st, 2008
"Oded Schramm, 46, Mathematician, Is Dead"
by
Kenneth Chang
September 11th, 2008
The New York Times
by
Kenneth Chang
September 11th, 2008
The New York Times
Oded Schramm, who melded ideas from two branches of mathematics into an equation that applies to a multitude of physics problems from the percolation of water through rocks to the tangling of polymers, died Sept. 1 in a fall at Guye Peak near Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. He was 46.
The death of Dr. Schramm, an avid and experienced hiker, was confirmed by the King County Sheriff's Department. His wife, Avivit, had reported him missing on the evening of Sept. 1 when he did not return as planned. His body was found the next morning.
Dr. Schramm's equation analyzes behavior in two-dimensional systems near "phase transitions" when order suddenly appears out of disorder, like tiny magnets that suddenly line up in the same direction. Physicists had worked out rough answers to the problems, but Dr. Schramm was able to provide rigorous, exact calculations.
"It was a revelation to both mathematicians and physicists," Jennifer Tour Chayes, who hired Dr. Schramm for Microsoft Research’s theory group in 1999, said of Dr. Schramm's insights.
For that work, published in 2000, Dr. Schramm received an array of accolades and prizes. If Dr. Schramm had been born three weeks and a day later, he would almost certainly have been one of the winners of the Fields Medal, perhaps the highest honor in mathematics, in 2002.
But the Fields Medals, which honor groundbreaking work by young mathematicians, are awarded only once every four years and only to mathematicians who are 40 or under. Dr. Schramm was born on Dec. 10, 1961; the cutoff birth date for the 2002 Fields was Jan. 1, 1962.
Wendelin Werner, a younger mathematician who collaborated with Dr. Schramm on follow-up research, won a Fields in 2006.
Born in Jerusalem, Oded Schramm received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from Hebrew University in 1986 and a master's in mathematics a year later. Moving to the United States, he completed his doctoral degree in mathematics at Princeton in 1990.
After working at the University of California, San Diego, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Dr. Schramm joined the theory group of Microsoft Research, an arm of Microsoft dedicated to basic science akin to the old Bell Laboratories.
"He was the most theoretical in the theory group," said Yuval Peres, the current head of the theory group.
For his doctoral thesis, Dr. Schramm worked in the mathematical field of topology. Then, unlike most mathematicians who specialize in a niche, he jumped between varied branches of mathematics. He took an equation first developed in 1923 by the mathematician Charles Loewner in a field known as conformal geometry and added ideas from probability theory. Dr. Schramm added random, or stochastic, variables to Dr. Loewner's equation and called the result stochastic Loewner evolution.
The approach was unique and proved applicable to a range of physics problems.
"He brought together two branches of mathematics that were previously unrelated: conformal geometry and probability theory," Dr. Chayes said. "Any time you can relate two different fields obviously there is huge excitement about that. It just opens up all kinds of new horizons in mathematics."
His awards included the Clay Research Award in 2002, the Henri Poincaré prize in 2003, the Polya Prize in 2006 and the Ostrowski Prize last year. He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences this year.
Dr. Schramm, who lived in Sammamish, Wash., is survived by his wife and two children, Tselil and Pele.
Dr. Chayes recalled in the summer of 2000 when Dr. Schramm summarized his year of work to her in a typical understatement: "He said simply: 'I think I’ve done some very nice work on two-dimensional systems this year. You might want to look at it.'"
That was the stochastic Loewner evolution equation, now often called Schramm-Loewner evolution. "He would always look very embarrassed when we called it the Schramm-Loewner equation," Dr. Chayes said.
Oded Schramm Home Page
- Deceased--william P. Thurston
William P. Thurston October 30th, 1946 to August 21st, 2012 "William P. Thurston, Theoretical Mathematician, Dies at 65" by Leslie Kaufman August 22nd, 2012 The New York Times William P. Thurston, a mathematician who revolutionized understanding of the...
- Deceased--vladimir Arnold
Vladimir Arnold June 12th, 1937 to June 3rd, 2010 "Vladimir Arnold Dies at 72; Pioneering Mathematician" by Kenneth Chang June 10th, 2010 The New York Times Vladimir I. Arnold, a Russian mathematician who discovered important theorems that found application...
- Deceased--israel M. Gelfand
Israel M. Gelfand September /August [?] 1913 to October 5th, 2009 "Israel Gelfand, Math Giant, Dies at 96" by Kenneth Chang October 8th, 2009 New York Times Israel M. Gelfand, one of the giants of 20th-century mathematics, whose work cleared paths for...
- Deceased--kiyoshi Ito
Kiyoshi Ito September 7th, 1915 to November 17th, 2008 "Kiyoshi Ito, 93, Mathematician Who Described Random Motion, Dies" by Steve Lohr November 24th, 2008 The New York Times Kiyoshi Ito, a mathematician whose innovative models of random motion are...
- Deceased--henri Paul Cartan
Henri Paul Cartan July 8th, 1904 to August 13th, 2008 "Henri Cartan, French Mathematician, Is Dead at 104" by Kenneth Chang August 25, 2008 The New York Times Henri Cartan, a mathematician known for meticulous proofs and for inspiring a revival of...