I. Martin Isaacs

I. Martin Isaacs
Born(1940-04-14)April 14, 1940
DiedFebruary 17, 2025(2025-02-17) (aged 84)
Scientific career
FieldsGroup theory, mathematics
Institutions
  • University of Chicago
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison

Irving Martin Isaacs (April 14, 1940 – February 17, 2025) was an American group theorist and representation theorist. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison until his retirement.[1][2][3][4]

Biography

Isaacs was born in the Bronx, in New York City, on April 14, 1940.[5][6] He received a BS from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1960.[6]

Isaacs went on to Harvard University for graduate study. He received a masters degree in 1961,[6] and completed his PhD in 1964. His thesis was advised by Richard Brauer,[7] and was titled Finite -solvable linear groups.[8] After a few years at the University of Chicago as an instructor and visiting assistant professor, Isaacs moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1969.[6] He was hired as an associate professor, and promoted to full professor in 1971.[6] According to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, he supervised 29 doctoral students over his career.[7]

In 2011, Isaacs retired and became a professor emeritus.[1][2][3][4] In retirement, he lived in Berkeley, California and was an occasional participant on MathOverflow.[4] Near the end of his life, he endowed a prize awarded for "Excellence in Mathematical Writing," first awarded in 2025.[5][9]

Research

Isaacs is most famous for formulating the Isaacs–Navarro conjecture along with Gabriel Navarro, a widely cited generalization of the McKay conjecture.[10][11]

Books

Isaacs is famous as the author of Character Theory of Finite Groups (first published in 1976), one of the most well-known graduate student-level introductory books in character theory and representation theory of finite groups.[12][13]

Isaacs is also the author of the book Algebra: A Graduate Course (first published in 1994; republished in 2009),[14] which received highly positive reviews.[15] Additionally, he is the author of Finite Group Theory (published in 2008).[16][17][18]

Honors

In 2009, a conference was held at the Universitat de Valencia in Spain to honor his contributions.[19] Following the conference, a festschrift was published by the American Mathematical Society.[20]

Isaacs was also a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[21]

Isaacs was a Pólya lecturer for the Mathematical Association of America. He received the Benjamin Smith Reynolds award for teaching engineering students at the University of Wisconsin and a UW Madison campus teaching award. He was also the recipient of a Sloan Foundation research award.

Personal life

Isaacs was seriously injured in an automobile accident in France in 1964, shortly after receiving his PhD. The accident left him scarred and disabled.[5]

He died of kidney failure on February 17, 2025.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 "Emeritus Faculty and Staff Directory". Department of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "I. Martin Isaacs". University of Wisconsin Madison (Experts Guide). Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Emeritus Professor Proposals". Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 "User Marty Isaacs". MathOverflow. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Passman, Don (2025). "Memorial Resolution for Marty Isaacs". Department of Mathematics. University of Wisconsin–Madison. Retrieved April 7, 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Kalte, Pamela M.; Nemeh, Katherine H.; Schusterbauer, Noah, eds. (2005). American Men & Women of Science. Vol. 3 (G-I) (22nd ed.). Thomson Gale.
  7. 1 2 "I. Martin (Irving) Isaacs". Mathematics Genealogy Project. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  8. ↑ Isaacs, Irving Martin (1964). Finite p-solvable linear groups (PhD thesis). Harvard University.
  9. ↑ "Green to Receive Inaugural I. Martin Isaacs Prize". American Mathematical Society. November 26, 2024. Retrieved April 7, 2025.
  10. ↑ Isaacs, I. Martin; Navarro, Gabriel (2002). "New refinements of the McKay conjecture for finite groups". Annals of Mathematics. 156: 333–344. arXiv:math/0411171. doi:10.2307/3597192. JSTOR 3597192. S2CID 16357742.
  11. ↑ "Isaacs-Navarro conjecture". Groupprops, The Group Properties Wiki. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  12. ↑ Isaacs, I. Martin (January 1994). Character Theory of Finite Groups (Dover Books on Mathematics). ISBN 978-0486680149.
  13. ↑ Curtis, Charles W. (1977). "Character theory of finite groups (book review)". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 83 (5): 1005–1007. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1977-14355-3.
  14. ↑ Berg, Michael (April 24, 2009). "Review of Algebra: A Graduate Course by I. Martin Isaacs". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
  15. ↑ "Algebra: A Graduate Course". American Mathematical Society. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  16. ↑ Isaacs, I. Martin. "Additional Material for the Book (Finite Group Theory)". American Mathematical Society. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  17. ↑ Isaacs, I. Martin (January 1, 2008). Finite Group Theory. American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-4344-4. 2011 reprint with corrections
  18. ↑ Locascio, Andrew (April 20, 2009). "Review of Finite Group Theory by I. Martin Isaacs". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
  19. ↑ "Isaacs Conference: Conference on Character Theory of Finite Groups". June 3–5, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  20. ↑ Lewis, Mark L.; Navarro, Gabriel; Passman, Donald S.; Wolf, Thomas R., eds. (2010). Character Theory of Finite Groups: Conference in Honor of I. Martin Isaacs. Contemporary Mathematics. Vol. 524. American Mathematical Society. Retrieved February 24, 2025.
  21. ↑ "List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". American Mathematical Society. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
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