5801 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, United States
From the beginning, Bliss was identified with the University of Chicago. He enrolled there in 1893, one year after the university opened its doors. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1897, his master’s in 1898, and his doctorate in 1900. Although he began his studies in mathematical astronomy, under the guidance of F. R. Moulton, he soon turned to the study of pure mathematics. Eliakim Hastings Moore and Oskar Bolza - who aroused his interest in the calculus of variations - were his instructors.
5801 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, United States
From the beginning, Bliss was identified with the University of Chicago. He enrolled there in 1893, one year after the university opened its doors. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1897, his master’s in 1898, and his doctorate in 1900. Although he began his studies in mathematical astronomy, under the guidance of F. R. Moulton, he soon turned to the study of pure mathematics. Eliakim Hastings Moore and Oskar Bolza - who aroused his interest in the calculus of variations - were his instructors.
(This book is the first of s series of monographs on mathe...)
This book is the first of s series of monographs on mathematical subjects which are to be published under the auspices of the Mathematical Association of America. The purpose of the monographs is to make the essential features of various mathematical theories accessible and attractive to as many persons as possible who have an interest in mathematics but who may not be specialists in the particular theory presented.
(This text surveys the approaches and basic results of all...)
This text surveys the approaches and basic results of all three classes of algebraic functions. Starting with a treatment of single-valued analytic functions, it introduces algebraic and rational functions and proceeds to the Riemann surface of an algebraic function, integrals of rational functions, and Abel's theorem.
Gilbert Ames Bliss was an American mathematician, who contributed greatly to the calculus of variations. He was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1913 to 1941.
Background
Gilbert Ames Bliss was born on March 9, 1876, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of George Harrison Bliss and Mary Maria Gilbert. He grew up in a Chicago family that eventually became affluent; in 1907, his father became president of the company supplying all of Chicago's electricity.
Education
From his father, Gilbert learned much about recent scientific advances and probably acquired an abiding interest in the sciences. Bliss proved precocious in elementary and secondary school, complementing academic studies with competitive sports. He retained a lifelong interest in athletics, turning subsequently to tennis and later to golf.
In 1893 Bliss enrolled in the University of Chicago as a member of the second entering class. A severe and sarcastic calculus teacher aroused his interest in mathematics. The instructor recommended him for a scholarship to the senior college, a particularly welcome honor since, because of the 1893 depression, Bliss had to pay most of his own college expenses. To earn extra money he became a member of a professional - and financially successful - mandolin quartet. In 1897 he received a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1897-1898 Bliss studied mathematical astronomy under Forest Ray Moulton, published his first scientific paper, and earned a Master of Science degree. But despite his fine record, the department rejected his application for a doctoral fellowship. He then turned to the department of mathematics and in 1900 received the Ph. D.
Bliss spent his apprenticeship as a mathematics instructor at the universities of Minnesota (1900–1902) and Chicago (1903–1904). From 1902 to 1903 he did postgraduate work at the University of Göttingen. Bliss was an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Missouri (1904–1905) and at Princeton (1905–1908). In 1908 he returned to Chicago as an associate professor.
Bliss taught and worked at the University of Chicago from 1908 to 1941. He was an associate professor until 1913, a professor from 1913 to 1941, and a professor emeritus from 1941. He succeeded Robert Lee Moore as a chairman of the mathematics department in 1927 and was a Martin A. Ryerson distinguished professor of mathematics from 1933 to 1941.
Besides teaching mathematics, Bliss helped to strengthen its institutional framework and to set high standards for writing in the field. The honors accorded him speak of his effectiveness. From 1924 to 1936 he served on the fellowship board of the newly instituted National Research Council, initially with George David Birkhoff and Veblen.
Although his scientific interests ranged broadly over the field of analysis, with special emphasis on the basic existence theorems, the focal point of much of his work was the calculus of variations. Prior to World War I he wrote, together with Max Mason, on the application of the methods of Weierstrass to a number of problems in the latter subject. He worked in the ballistic laboratory at Aberdeen, Maryland, during the war, and used his knowledge of the calculus of variations to construct new firing tables. In the 1920s, his papers encompassed the transformation of Clebsch, proofs of the necessity of the Jacobi condition, multiple integrals, and boundary value problems in his field. His research in algebraic functions led to his paper “Algebraic Functions and Their Divisors,” and Bliss expanded on this work in his book Algebraic Functions (1933).
His elementary Carus Monograph on the calculus of variations (1925) was followed, after some twenty years, by his definitive book: Lectures on the Calculus of Variations (1946). In this publication Bliss employed the scattered results of mathematicians of past decades, many of whom were his former students, to establish firmly the theoretical foundations of the calculus of variations. He approached his subject from the viewpoint of analysis and covered the use of existence theorems for implicit functions, differential equations, and the analysis of singular points for the transformations of the plane. He improved upon and extended the theories of the problems of Lagrange, Mayer, and Bolza and simplified the proofs of the necessary and sufficient conditions of these problems. He clearly presented the theory of the calculus of variations for cases involving no side conditions. Overall he gave a greater comprehensiveness and generality to the field than had previously existed. As a result of his earlier work as summarized in this book, Bliss may be judged as one of the chief architects of the edifice of the calculus of variations.
Besides, Bliss once headed a government commission that devised rules for apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the several states.
Except for once being a head of a government commission that devised rules for apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the several states, Gilbert Ames Bliss was never involved in politics.
Views
Quotations:
"The real purpose of graduate work in mathematics, or any other subject, is to train the student to recognize what men call truth, and to give him what is usually his first experience in searching out the truth in some specialfield and recording his impressions. Such a training is invaluable for teaching, or business, or whatever activity may claim the student's future interest."
Membership
Gilbert Bliss was president of the American Mathematical Society for 1921 and 1922. During this period he successfully campaigned to increase its membership by 50 percent. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
American Mathematical Society
American Philosophical Society
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Personality
Throughout his career at Chicago, he was known for his lively sense of humor and for stressing the importance of a strong union between teaching and fundamental mathematical research.
Interests
mandolin
Sport & Clubs
tennis, golf
Connections
Bliss married Helen Hurd in 1912 and they had two children before Helen tragically died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Bliss married again in 1920, his second wife being Olive Hunter; there were no children from this marriage.