Background
He was born at Overisel, Michigan, on the twenty-first of March, 1884. His ancestry was Dutch on both sides. His father, David Birkhoff, came from Holland in 1870, and during George David’s growing years was a physician in Chicago.
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1927
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1941
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1950
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1950
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1950
He was born at Overisel, Michigan, on the twenty-first of March, 1884. His ancestry was Dutch on both sides. His father, David Birkhoff, came from Holland in 1870, and during George David’s growing years was a physician in Chicago.
Birkhoff studied at the Lewis Institute, Chicago, from 1896 to 1902, and at the University of Chicago for a year. After this he went to Harvard, where he received the Bachelor’s degree in 1905.
In 1912, attempting to solve the four-color problem, Birkhoff introduced the chromatic polynomial. Even though this line of attack did not prove fruitful, the polynomial itself became an important object of study in algebraic graph theory.
In 1913, he proved Poincaré's "Last Geometric Theorem," a special case of the three-body problem, a result that made him world-famous. In 1927, he published his Dynamical Systems. He wrote on the foundations of relativity and quantum mechanics, publishing (with R. E. Langer) the monograph Relativity and Modern Physics in 1923. In 1923, Birkhoff also proved that the Schwarzschild geometry is the unique spherically symmetric solution of the Einstein field equations. A consequence is that black holes are not merely a mathematical curiosity, but could result from any spherical star having sufficient mass.
Birkhoff's most durable result has been his 1931 discovery of what is now called the ergodic theorem. Combining insights from physics on the ergodic hypothesis with measure theory, this theorem solved, at least in principle, a fundamental problem of statistical mechanics. The ergodic theorem has also had repercussions for dynamics, probability theory, group theory, and functional analysis. He also worked on number theory, the Riemann–Hilbert problem, and the four colour problem. He proposed an axiomatization of Euclidean geometry different from Hilbert's (see Birkhoff's axioms); this work culminated in his text Basic Geometry (1941).
In his later years, Birkhoff published two curious works. His 1933 Aesthetic Measure proposed a mathematical theory of aesthetics. While writing this book, he spent a year studying the art, music and poetry of various cultures around the world. His 1938 Electricity as a Fluid combined his ideas on philosophy and science. His 1943 theory of gravitation is also puzzling since Birkhoff knew (but didn't seem to mind) that his theory allows as sources only matter which is a perfect fluid in which the speed of sound must equal the speed of light.
During the last few years of his life Birkhoff knew that his heart was no longer as strong as it had been, but he never slackened up his scientific and other work. He died in his sleep on November 12, 1944.
Birkhoff was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics in his generation, and during his time he was considered by many to be the preeminent American mathematician.
In 1923, he was awarded the inaugural Bôcher Memorial Prize by the American Mathematical Society for his paper in 1917 containing, among other things, what is now called the Birkhoff curve shortening process.
The George David Birkhoff Prize in applied mathematics is awarded jointly by the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in his honor.
He was made an officer of the French Legion of Honor in 1936.
Albert Einstein and Norbert Wiener, among others, accused Birkhoff of advocating anti-Semitic hiring practices. During the 1930s, when many Jewish mathematicians fled Europe and tried to obtain jobs in the USA, Birkhoff is alleged to have influenced the hiring process at American institutions to exclude Jews. Birkhoff's anti-Semitic views and remarks are well-documented, but Saunders Mac Lane has argued that Birkhoff's efforts were motivated less by animus towards Jews than by a desire to find jobs for home-grown American mathematicians.
However, Birkhoff took a particular liking to certain Jewish mathematicians, including Stanislaw Ulam.
He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Académie des Sciences in Paris, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and the London and Edinburgh Mathematical Societies.
He was also a Vice-president of the American Mathematical Society, 1919, President of the American Mathematical Society, 1925–1926, Editor of Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 1920–1924.
George David Birkhoff married Margaret Elizabeth Grafius, September 2, 1908. They had three children: Barbara, Garrett, Rodney.
