Background
James Glimm was born in Peoria, Illinois, United States of America on 24 March 1934.
James Glimm was born in Peoria, Illinois, United States of America on 24 March 1934.
He continued on to graduate school at Columbia where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics in 1959. His advisor was Richard V. Kadison.
He has made many contributions in the areas of pure and applied mathematics. He received his Bachelor in engineering from Columbia University in 1956. Glimm had significant stints at New York University, and at Rockefeller University, before arriving at Stony Brook University in 1989.
He has been noted for contributions to C*-algebras, quantum field theory, partial differential equations, fluid dynamics, scientific computing, and the modeling of petroleum reservoirs.
Together with Arthur Jaffe, he has founded a subject called constructive quantum field theory. His early work in the theory of operator algebras was seminal, and today the "Glimm algebras" that bear his name continue to play an important role in this area of research.
More recently, the United States Department of Energy adopted Glimm’s front-track methodology for shock-wave calculations, e.g., simulating weapons performance. Glimm was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1984.
Starting January 1, 2007, he served a 2-year term as president of the American Mathematical Society.
In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
Selected publications Glimm, James (1965), "Solutions in the large for nonlinear hyperbolic systems of equations", Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics 18: 697–715, doi:10.1002/cpa.3160180408 Glimm, James (May 1960), "On a certain class of operator algebras.", Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 95 (2): 318–340, doi:10.2307/1993294, JSTOR 1993294 Glimm, James (September 1960), "A Stone-Weierstrass theorem for C*-algebras.", Annals of Mathematics. Second Series 72 (2): 216–244, doi:10.2307/1970133, JSTOR 1970133 Glimm, James (May 1961), "Type IC*-algebras.", Annals of Mathematics. Second Series 73 (3): 572–612, doi:10.2307/1970319, JSTOR 1970319 Glimm, James.
Et al., "Three-Dimensional Front Tracking", SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 19 (3): 703–727, doi:10.1137/S1064827595293600 Glimm, James. Et al. (March 1981), "Front tracking for hyperbolic systems", Advances in Applied Mathematics 2 (1): 91–119, doi:10.1016/0196-8858(81)90040-3 Glimm, James.
Jaffe, Arthur (March 1970), "The λ (φ4) 2 quantum field theory without cutoffs: II. the field operators and the approximate vacuum", Annals of Mathematics. Second Series 91 (2): 362–401, doi:10.2307/1970582, JSTOR 1970582 Glimm, James. Jaffe, Arthur (1973), "Positivity of the φ 34 Hamiltonian.", Fortschritte der Physik 21 (7): 327–376, doi:10.1002/prop.19730210702 (Book) Glimm, James.
Jaffe, Arthur (1981), Quantum physics : a functional integral point of view, New york, NY: Springer, (Book) Glimm, James. Lax, Peter (1970), Decay of solutions of systems of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws, Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society 101.
Book) Glimm, James; Jaffe, Arthur (1981), Quantum physics: a functional integral point of view, New york, New York: Springer.
American Mathematical Society. National Academy of Sciences.