Robert Brown

Background

Brown, Robert was born on March 25, 1939 in London, England. Son of George John and Doris Elvie Brown.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Queen Mary College, London University, 1961.

Career

He was the author and co-author of three influential books, produced more than fifty papers, eighteen masters students and thirteen Doctor of Philosophy students. His 1991 book, Theory of Exterior Differential Systems is now considered the standard reference for the subject. Robert Bryant, Duke University"s Professor of Mathematics and the president of the American Mathematical Society (2015-2017) was a student of his.

He is better known in the United States for his improvements and popularization of the methods of Élie Cartan (most notably, Cartan"s equivalence method, an algorithmic procedure for determining if two geometric shapes are different).

The works of Cartan were hard to grasp for most students, and Gardner worked to explain them in more accessible ways. He was born on February 27, 1939.

Gardner graduated from Princeton University in 1959, earned a master"s degree from Columbia University in 1960, and completed his Doctor of Philosophy in 1965 from the University of California, Berkeley, under the orientation of Shiing-Shen Chern. He joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971 and became a full professor there in 1977.

He died on May 5, 1998.

In his memory, the University of North Carolina Mathematics Department created the Robert Brown Gardner Memorial Fund, devoted to supporting graduate student activities.

Achievements

• Robert Brown has been listed as a noteworthy civil engineer, process engineer by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

After this, he worked at many places, including becoming a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, and some years as assistant professor at Columbia University.

Interests

• Tennis, music, reading, squash, running.

Connections

Married Pearl Edith Lloyd, August 18, 1961. Children: Sarah Jane, Emma Alexandra.

Father:

George John

Mother:

Doris Elvie Brown

Spouse:

Pearl Edith Lloyd

child:

Emma Alexandra Brown

child:

Sarah Jane Brown