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Joachim Lambek

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Joachim Lambek
Joachim Lambek in Philadelphia, May 2008
Born(1922-12-05)December 5, 1922
DiedJune 23, 2014(2014-06-23) (aged 91)
CitizenshipCanadian
Known forLambek–Moser theorem, Lambek calculus
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsMcGill University
Doctoral advisorHans Zassenhaus

Joachim Lambek (5 December 1922 – 23 June 2014[1]) was Peter Redpath Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at McGill University, where he earned his Ph.D. degree in 1950 with Hans Zassenhaus as advisor.

Scholarly work

Lambek supervised 16 doctoral students, and has 51 doctoral descendants. He has over 100 publications listed in the Mathematical Reviews, including 6 books. His earlier work was mostly in module theory, especially torsion theories, non-commutative localization, and injective modules. One of his earliest papers, (Lambek & Moser 1954) proved the Lambek-Moser theorem about integer sequences. His more recent work is in pregroups and formal languages; his earliest work in this field were probably (Lambek 1958) and (Lambek 1979). He is noted, among other things, for the Lambek calculus, an effort to capture mathematical aspects of natural language syntax in logical form and a work that has been very influential in computational linguistics. His last works were on pregroup grammar.

Selected works

Books

  • Fine, N. J.; Gillman, Leonard; Lambek, Joachim (1966), Rings of quotients of rings of functions, McGill University Press, MR 0200747
  • Lambek, Joachim (1966), Lectures on rings and modules, With an appendix by Ian G. Connell, Blaisdell Publishing, MR 0206032; 3rd edition. 2009.
  • Lambek, Joachim (1966), Completions of categories, Seminar lectures given in 1966 in Zürich. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, No. 24, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, MR 0209330
  • Lambek, Joachim (1971), Torsion theories, additive semantics, and rings of quotients, With an appendix by H. H. Storrer on torsion theories and dominant dimensions. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Vol. 177, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, MR 0284459
  • Lambek, J.; Scott, P.J. (1986), Introduction to Higher Order Categorical Logic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-35653-4, MR 0856915
  • Anglin, W. S.; Lambek, Joachim (1995), The heritage of Thales, Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-94544-6, MR 1369087
  • Casadio, Claudia; Lambek, Joachim (2008), Computational Algebraic Approaches to Natural Language, Polimetrica, ISBN 978-88-7699-125-7
  • Lambek, J. (2008), From word to sentence: a computational algebraic approach to grammar, Polimetrica, ISBN 978-88-7699-117-2

Articles

References

  1. ^ Lambek, Joachim (27 June 2014). "Joachim Lambek obituary". Legacy.com. The Gazette. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  • Barr, Michael; Scott, P. J.; Seely, R. A. G., eds. (2000), The Lambek Festschrift: mathematical structures in computer science, Cambridge University Press, MR 1770227 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |editorlink= ignored (|editor-link= suggested) (help)