Robert Osserman

Robert "Bob" Osserman (December 19, 1926 – November 30, 2011) was an American mathematician who worked in geometry. He is specially remembered for his work on the theory of minimal surfaces. There are many mathematical concepts named after him.

Raised in Bronx, he went to Bronx High School of Science (diploma, 1942) and New York University. He earned a Ph.D. in 1955 from Harvard University with the thesis Contributions to the Problem of Type (on Riemann surfaces) supervised by Lars Ahlfors.

He joined Stanford University in 1955. He joined the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in 1990. He worked on geometric function theory, differential geometry, the two integrated in a theory of minimal surfaces, isoperimetric inequality, and other issues in the areas of astronomy, geometry, cartography and complex function theory.

Osserman was the head of mathematics at Office of Naval Research, a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Paris and Guggenheim Fellow at the University of Warwick. He edited numerous books and promoted mathematics, such as in interviews with celebrities Steve Martin and Alan Alda.

He was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) of 1978 in Helsinki.

He received the Lester R. Ford Award (1980) of the Mathematical Association of America for his popular science writings.

H. Blaine Lawson, David Allen Hoffman and Michael Gage were Ph.D. students of his.

Books Two-Dimensional Calculus (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968; Krieger, 1977; Dover Publications, Inc, 2011) ; ; A Survey of Minimal Surfaces (1969, 1986) Poetry of the Universe: A Mathematical Exploration of the Cosmos (Random House, 1995)

Awards John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellow (1976) Lester R. Ford Award (1980) 2003 Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award.

Topics named after Robert Osserman Osserman conjecture Osserman manifolds Osserman's theorem Stanford University's Robert Osserman Teaching Award

Selected research papers