Daniel Kleitman
Daniel J. Kleitman (born October 4, 1934)[1] is a professor of applied mathematics at MIT. His research interests include combinatorics, graph theory, genomics, and operations research.
[edit] Biography
Kleitman was born in New York, New York in 1934. received his PhD in Physics from Harvard University in 1958 under Nobel Laureates Julian Schwinger and Roy Glauber.[2] He is the "k" in G. W. Peck, a pseudonym for a group of six mathematicians that includes Kleitman. Formerly a physics professor at Brandeis University,[3] Kleitman was encouraged by Paul Erdős to change his field of study to Mathematics. Perhaps humorously, Erdős once asked him, "Why are you only a physicist?"[4]
Kleitman joined the applied mathematics faculty at MIT in 1966, and was promoted to professor in 1969.[3]
Kleitman has coauthored at least six papers with Erdős, giving him an Erdős number of 1. He was a math advisor and extra for the film Good Will Hunting.[5]
Since Minnie Driver of Good Will Hunting appeared in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon, Kleitman has a Bacon number of 2. Adding the two numbers results in an Erdős–Bacon number of 3, the lowest currently known.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Daniel Kleitman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
- ^ a b "MIT Mathematics - Daniel Kleitman". www-math.mit.edu. http://www-math.mit.edu/people/profile.php?pid=135. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
- ^ Peck, G. W. (2002), "Kleitman and combinatorics: a celebration", Discrete Mathematics 257 (2–3): 193–224, doi:10.1016/S0012-365X(02)00595-2, MR1935723.
- ^ Daniel J. Kleitman, "My Career in the Movies,", Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 45, 502 (April 1998)
- ^ Grossman, Jerry. "Items of Interest Related to Erdös Numbers". The Erdös Number Project. Oakland University. http://www4.oakland.edu/?id=9575&sid=243. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
[edit] External links
   |
This article about an American mathematician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
