Ralph Abraham

Ralph Herman Abraham ( born July 4, 1936 in Burlington, Vermont) is an American mathematician who is concerned with the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations, analysis on manifolds, and mathematical foundations of mechanics ( chaos theory) and general relativity.

Abraham studied at the University of Michigan with a bachelor 's degree in 1956 and a master's degree in 1958 and was there in 1960 by Nathan Coburn doctorate ( Discontinuities in General Relativity ). As a post - graduate student, he was a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and 1962/63 for the Office of Naval Research at Columbia University, where he became assistant professor in 1963. In 1964 he became assistant professor at Princeton University in 1968 and Associate Professor in 1980 and Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has been a visiting scientist in Amsterdam, Paris, Warwick, Barcelona, ​​Basel and Florence.

The mid-1970s, he founded the Visual Math Institute ( which received its current name in 1990 ) in Santa Cruz and he was active in presentations of mathematics with music and visual arts (since 1992, with Ami Radunskaya, Peter Broadwell ).

He is an early textbook of mechanics known as mathematical aspects ( Foundations of Mechanics ). It discussed the applications of chaos theory in different fields and lectures internationally and seminars on chaos theory. He also wrote several books on chaos theory and philosophical questions (some with Rupert Sheldrake and Terence McKenna ). He is associated with the Group of Intellectuals Lindisfarne Association by William Irwin Thompson. With Thompson, he is also involved in the organization of teaching the Ross School.

Abraham is the editor of World Futures and the Journal of Bifurcations and Chaos. He has been married since 1958 and has two children.

Writings

  • Foundations of Mechanics, Benjamin 1967, 2nd edition by Jerrold Marsden
  • Linear and multilinear algebra, Benjamin 1967
  • With Marsden, Tudor Ratiu Manifolds, tensor analysis and applications, Addison -Wesley 1983, 1988
  • Christopher D. Shaw, Dynamics, geometry and behavior, 4 volumes, Aerial Press from 1982 to 1988, 2nd edition Addison-Wesley 1992 Periodic Behavior Volume 1, Volume 2 Chaotic Behavior, Volume 3 Global Behavior, Volume 4 Bifurcation Behavior
  • German translation: Think the Unthinkable on the edge: on order and chaos, physics and metaphysics, ego and soul of the world, Piper Verlag 1997
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