- Shizuo Kakutani
nihongo|Shizuo Kakutani|角谷 静夫|Kakutani Shizuo|
August 28 ,1911 –August 17 ,2004 was a Japanesemathematician , best known for his eponymous fixed-point theorem.Kakutani attended
Tohoku University in Sendai, where his advisor wasTatsujirō Shimizu . Early in his career he spent two years at theInstitute for Advanced Study in Princeton at the invitation of the German mathematicianHermann Weyl . While there, he also metJohn von Neumann .Kakutani received his
Ph.D. in 1941 fromOsaka University [MathGenealogy|id=1401] and taught there throughWorld War II . He returned to the Institute for Advanced Study in 1948, and was given a professorship by Yale in 1949.Kakutani received two major awards of the
Japan Academy , theImperial Prize and theAcademy Prize in 1982, for his scholarly achievements in general and his work on functional analysis in particular.The
Kakutani fixed-point theorem is a generalization ofBrouwer's fixed-point theorem , holding for generalized correspondences instead of functions. Its most important use is in proving the existence ofNash equilibria ingame theory .Kakutani's other well-known mathematical contributions include the
Kakutani skyscraper , a concept inergodic theory , and his solution of thePoisson equation using the methods of stochastic analysis.The
Collatz conjecture is also known as the Kakutani conjecture.His daughter,
Michiko Kakutani , is aPulitzer Prize -winning literary critic for the "New York Times ".See Also
Kakutani fixed point theorem List of books available in English
*"Selected papers" / Shizuo Kakutani ; Robert R. Kallman, editor (1986)
References
External links
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/obituaries/18kakutani.html New York Times obituary]
* [http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Math/alumni/tangents/tangents_Fall2004/MathInTheNews.htm Obituary, University of Massachusetts newsletter]
* [http://www.yale.edu/opa/v33.n1/story10.html Obituary, Yale Bulletin and Calendar]
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Kakutani.html Biography, University of St. Andrews/Turnbull]
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Kakutani.html The Lost Theorems of Kakutani]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.