Paul Halmos
Paul R. Halmos (1916-2006), a major figure in twentieth century mathematics, died on October 2 in Los Gatos, California. Of Hungarian descent, he came to the United States at age 13. He entered the University of Illinois at 16, and received his doctorate when he was 22. Upon receiving his PhD he spent two years at the Institute for Advanced Study as an assistant to John von Neumann. Over the course of his career he held positions at the University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaii, and Santa Clara University.
Professor Halmos was a famed author, editor, teacher, and speaker of distinction. Nearly all of his many books are still in print. His Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces, Naive Set Theory, Measure Theory, Problems for Mathematicians Young and Old, and I Want to be a Mathematician are classic books that reflect his clarity, conciseness, and color. He edited the American Mathematical Monthly from 1981-1985, and served for many years as one of the editors of the Springer-Verlag series Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics and Graduate Texts in Mathematics.
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