Zariski

Oscar Zariski


Born: 24 April 1899 in Kobrin, Byelorussia
Died: 4 July 1986 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA

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Zariski was a student at the University of Kiev from 1918 to 1920. He obtained a doctorate from Rome in 1924 where he remained until 1927.

Zariski went to the USA in 1927 and taught at Johns Hopkins University where he joined the Faculty, becoming a full professor in 1937. After spending the year 1946-47 at the University of Illinois, Zariski was appointed to a chair at Harvard where he was to remain until he retired.

His work was on foundations of algebraic geometry using algebraic methods. He worked on the theory of normal varieties, local uniformisation and the reduction of singularities of algebraic varieties.

Zariski was an editor of the American Mathematical Journal from 1937 to 1941. He was awarded prizes for his work including the Cole Prize in Algebra in 1944.

His most famous book is Commutative Algebra , a two volume work written jointly with P Samuel. The first volume appeared in 1958, the second in 1960. Among his other works is Algebraic Surfaces (1935).

References:

  1. C Parikh, The unreal life of Oscar Zariski (Boston, 1991).

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JOC/EFR May 1996