- Joseph Ritt
Joseph Fels Ritt (
August 23 ,1893 –January 5 ,1951 ) was an American mathematician atColumbia University in the early 20th century.After beginning his undergraduate studies at
City College , Ritt received his B.A. fromGeorge Washington University in 1913. He then earned a doctorate in mathematics from Columbia University in 1917 under the supervision ofEdward Kasner . After doing calculations for the war effort inWorld War I , he joined the Columbia faculty in 1921. He served as department chair from 1942 to 1945, and in 1945 became the Davies Professor of Mathematics.MacTutor Biography|id=Ritt] citation|first=Paul A.|last=Smith|title=Joseph Fels Ritt 1893–1951: A Biographical Memoir|publisher=United States National Academy of Sciences |year=1956|url=http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/jritt.pdf.] In 1932, George Washington University honored him with a Doctorate in Science,citation|first=E. R.|last=Lorch|title=Obituary : Joseph Fels Ritt|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society|volume=57|year=1951|pages=307–318|url=http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS/Repository/1.0/Disseminate?view=body&id=pdf_1&handle=euclid.bams/1183516114|doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1951-09529-4.] and in 1933 he was elected to join theUnited States National Academy of Sciences . He has 463 academic descendants listed in theMathematics Genealogy Project , mostly through his studentEllis Kolchin . [MathGenealogy|id=37354]He is known for his work on characterizing the
indefinite integral s that can be solved in closed form, for his work on the theory ofordinary differential equation s andpartial differential equation s, for beginning the study ofdifferential group s, and for the method ofcharacteristic set s used in the solution of systems of polynomial equations.ee also
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Ritt theorem References
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