Mathematician:Mark Kac

Mathematician

Polish American mathematician whose main interests were probability theory and spectral theory.

Nationality

Polish-American

History

• August 3, 1914 in Kremenets, in what was then the Russian Empire (now Krzemieniec in Ukraine)
• October 26, 1984 in California

Theorems and Inventions

• Feynman-Kac Formula (with Richard Phillips Feynman)
• Erdős-Kac Theorem (with Paul Erdős)
• Kac-Bernstein Theorem (with Sergei Natanovich Bernstein)
• Kac's Lemma

• Kac Process

Results named for Mark Kac can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Mark Kac can be found here.

Publications

• 1958: Mathematics and Logic: Retrospect and Prospects (with Stanisław Ulam)
• 1959: Statistical Independence in Probability, Analysis and Number Theory
• 1959: Probability and related topics in the physical sciences
• 1985: Enigmas of Chance: An Autobiography
• 1992: Discrete Thoughts (with Gian-Carlo Rota and Jacob T. Schwartz)

Notable Quotes

W. A. Hurwitz used to say that in teaching on an elementary level one must tell the truth, nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth.

-- Introduction to Discrete Thoughts, by Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota and Jacob T. Schwartz ($1976$)

Also known as

His name at birth was Marek Kac.

His surname is pronounced Kahts.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Mark Kac": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1996: Winfried Just and Martin Weese: Discovering Modern Set Theory. I: The Basics ... (previous) ... (next): How to Read this Book