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Miller, George Abram

(Encyclopedia)Miller, George Abram, 1863–1951, American mathematician, b. Lehigh co., Pa., grad. Muhlenberg College (B.A., 1887), Ph.D. Cumberland Univ., 1893. He was professor at the Univ. of Illinois (1907–31...

Mitchell, Peter Dennis

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Peter Dennis, 1920–92, British chemist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1950. A professor at the Univ. of Edinburgh (1955–63), Mitchell was named director of Glynn Research Laboratories in 1964. He for...

Malus, Étienne Louis

(Encyclopedia)Malus, Étienne Louis ātyĕnˈ lwē mälüsˈ [key], 1775–1812, French artillery officer and physicist. In 1810 he stated his discovery of the polarization of light by reflection and published a me...

Transantarctic Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Transantarctic Mountains, mountain chain stretching across Antarctica from Victoria Land to Coats Land; separating the E Antarctic and W Antarctic subcontinents. Mt. Markham (14,275 ft/4,351 m high), ...

Cleomedes

(Encyclopedia)Cleomedes klēˌōmēˈdēz, klēˌə– [key], fl. 2d cent., Greek astronomer. In a treatise on the circular theory of heavenly bodies, he recorded several hypotheses, e.g., the earth's spherical for...

Smith, Henry John Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Henry John Stephen, 1826–83, British mathematician. He was a lecturer in mathematics (1850–73) and, from 1860 to 1883, Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford. He is especially noted for h...

Taylor, Richard Edward

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Richard Edward, 1930–2018, Canadian experimental physicist. He was associated primarily with Stanford, where he received his doctorate (1962) and helped build and then worked—first (1962) ...

tensor

(Encyclopedia)tensor, in mathematics, quantity that depends linearly on several vector variables and that varies covariantly with respect to some variables and contravariantly with respect to others when the coordi...

Chern, Shiing-Shen

(Encyclopedia)Chern, Shiing-Shen, 1911–2004, Chinese-American mathematician, b. Kashing (now Jiaxing), China, D.Sc. Hamburg, 1936. While undertaking graduate studies in China (1932–34), Chern developed what bec...

Zygmund, Antoni

(Encyclopedia)Zygmund, Antoni äntôˈnē zĭgˈmo͞ont [key], 1900–1992, Polish-American mathematician, b. Warsaw, Ph.D. Univ. of Warsaw, 1923. In 1940 he escaped from German-controlled Poland to the United Stat...