William J. LeVeque

William Judson LeVeque (August 9, 1923 – December 1, 2007) was an American mathematician and administrator who worked primarily in number theory. He was executive director of the American Mathematical Society during the 1970s and 1980s when that organization was growing rapidly and greatly increasing its use of computers in academic publishing.

Life and education LeVeque was born August 9, 1923, in Boulder, Colorado. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado in 1944, and a master's degree in 1945 and a Ph.D. in 1947 from Cornell University.

He was an instructor at Harvard University from 1947 to 1949, then started at University of Michigan as an instructor and rose to professor. In 1970 he moved to the Claremont Graduate School. In 1977 he became executive director of the American Mathematical Society and remained there until his retirement in 1988. He died December 1, 2007. His son Randall J. LeVeque is a well known applied mathematician.

Work LeVeque's research interest was number theory, specifically transcendental numbers, uniform distribution, and Diophantine approximation.

The American Mathematical Society grew rapidly during LeVeque's time as executive director (1977–1988). Revenues tripled from $5 million in 1977 to $14.9 million in 1988. The Society began computerizing at a rapid rate during this period, with Mathematical Reviews first becoming available electronically through existing academic dial-up services; this system later evolved into MathSciNet. Most of the headquarters staff received computer terminals for use in the new operations.

Selected publications

(6 volumes)