Marvin Marcus

Marvin David Marcus (July 31, 1927, Albuquerque, New Mexico – February 20, 2016, Santa Barbara, California) was an American mathematician, known as a leading expert on linear and multilinear algebra.

Education and career From 1944 to 1946, Marvin Marcus served in the United States Navy. At the University of California, Berkeley, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1950 and a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1953. At the University of British Columbia (UBC), Marcus was an instructor from 1954 to 1955, an assistant professor from 1955 to 1956, and an associate professor from 1957 to 1962. At UBC he became a friend of Henryk Minc At the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), he was a full professor from 1962 to 1991, when he retired as professor emeritus. He chaired UCSB's mathematics department from 1963 and 1969 and created what gained an international reputation as the "Santa Barbara School of Linear Algebra". While chairing the department, he hired Henryk Minc, Robert Charles Thompson, and Ky Fan and brought many distinguished visiting mathematicians: Hans Heilbronn, Marshall Hall, Magnus Hestenes, Alan J. Hoffman, H. J. Ryser, Hans Schneider, Olga Taussky-Todd, John "Jack" Todd, and Hans Zassenhaus, as well as the then unknown Richard A. Brualdi. He was the section editor for linear algebra in Addison-Wesley's series Encyclopedia of mathematics and its applications.

According to Marcus's former doctoral student Robert Grone, Marcus did pioneering, fundamental research in "numerical ranges, matrix inequalities, linear preservers and multilinear algebra". Marcus was the author or co-author of more than 200 articles and problem solutions and more than 20 books. His three most important books might be Finite Dimensional Multilinear Algebra, Part I (1973, Marcel Dekker), Finite Dimensional Multilinear Algebra, Part II (1975, Marcel Dekker), and A Survey of Matrix Theory and Matrix Inequalities (1st edition 1964; reprint 1969; Dover reprint 1992).

In 1966, Marcus and Minc received the Mathematical Association of America's Lester R. Ford Award for their 1965 article Permanents.

Personal life In 1951 in California, Marvin Marcus married Arlen Ingrid Sahlman (1923–2005). They became the parents of a son and a daughter, but later divorced. Marvin Marcus was predeceased by his second wife — there were no children from his second marriage.