Antoni Zygmund (1900-1992) taught mathematics at Mount Holyoke College 1940-1945. He contributed to developing a strong library collection here. He later worked for many years (1947-1981) at the University of Chicago. He received an Honorary degree from Mount Holyoke in 1988 and was honored at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Connecticut Valley Mathematics Colloquium.
After his death in 1992, his personal collection of mathematics books came to Mount Holyoke. These books are now on display in special cases in the Seminar Room near the Mathematics department office (4th floor, Clapp Laboratories). Biographical information about Antoni Zygmund can be found in the following sources:
Antoni Zygmund founded an important school of classical analysis at the University of Chicago, where there is now an Annual Antoni Zygmund Lecture series.
Zygmund was born in Poland and experienced the loss of many colleagues and students during the Holocaust. The thesis and story of one of his University of Vilno students, Ela-Chaim Cunzer, is now on the web. "Dr. Antoni Zygmund, one of the towering figures in the field of 20th century mathematics, was Cunzer's mentor and teacher during his five years in the mathematics program at the university , 1932-1937..." Cunzer was a victim of the Holocaust.
Mount Holyoke College gave Antoni Zygmund a place to re-start his life after the trauma of war-torn Poland. When he returned in 1988 for the Honorary Degree, he mentioned the peacefulness and security that Mount Holyoke had brought to his family. We are honored to have his personal mathematical library.
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This page was created by Sandy Ward, Science
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This page was last modified on Thursday, 26-Sep-2002 02:48:20 EDT.