ProofWiki:Mathematicians/David Vernon Widder

American mathematician mainly working in analyis.

He was highly regarded for his teaching abilities.

The author of the textbook Advanced Calculus.

Nationality

American

History

• Born: March 25, 1898 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• 1916: Graduated top of his high school class, entered Harvard University
• 1916-17: Became a student of Maxime Bôcher
• 1917: Started work as a computer at Aberdeen Proving Grounds
• 1918: Returned to Harvard
• 1920: Graduated magna cum laude, took up a Sheldon traveling fellowship, traveled to England, France and Italy
• 1921: Returned to Harvard
• 1923: Earned Master's Degree
• 1924: Earned Doctorate, under supervision of George David Birkhoff
• 1924: Started teaching as an associate at Bryn Mawr
• 1926: Won a National Research Council Fellowship to study at the Rice Institute in Houston and at the University of Chicago
• 1927: Back at Bryn Mawr
• 1929: Chairman of department
• 1931: Returned to Cambridge as assistant professor
• 1937: Promoted to professorship
• 1939: Married Vera Ames
• 1942-48: Chairman of mathematics department
• 1964-68: Director of the Program for High School Teachers of Science and Mathematics
• Died: July 8, 1990, Arlington, Massachusetts

Books, Publications, etc.

• 1941: The Laplace Transform
• 1947: Advanced Calculus, 2nd Edition 1961.
• 1955: The Convolution Transform (with I. I. Hirschman)
• 1975: The Heat Equation
• 1979: The Airy Transform