Richard Duffin

Richard James Duffin (* 1909 in Chicago, † 29 October 1996 in Pittsburgh) was an American physicist and applied mathematician.

Duffin studied physics and electrical engineering ( bachelor's degree ) at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, where he received his doctorate in 1935 at Harold Mott -Smith and David Bourgin in physics thermomagnetic and galvanomagnetic effects. After that, he was a lecturer at Purdue University and the University of Illinois. During World War II he worked at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC, where he conducted research for the U.S. Navy among other things, mine detection. From 1946 to 1988 he was professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He also worked as a consultant for the electric company Westinghouse.

Duffin dealt among other things with the theory of electrical networks and operations research. Among his students is one of Raoul Bott, with whom he worked on analysis of electrical networks ( Bott - Duffin synthesis, Duffin - Bott - inverse ).

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972. In 1982 he was awarded the John von Neumann Theory Prize.

Writings

  • With Elmor Peterson, Clarence Zener: Geometric Programming - Theory and applications, Wiley 1967
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