Abraham Robinson

Reveals the dramatic personal life of one of the 20th century's most prominent mathematicians. The creator of nonstandard analysis, Robinson fled from Russia to Palestine as a boy, and spent World War II working at the UK's Royal Aircraft Establishment, before embarking on a career as a lecturer.

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One of the most prominent mathematicians of the twentieth century, Abraham Robinson discovered and developed nonstandard analysis, a rigorous theory of infinitesimals that he used to unite mathematical logic with the larger body of historic and modern mathematics. In this first biography of Robinson, Joseph Dauben reveals the mathematician's personal life to have been a dramatic one: developing his talents in spite of war and ethnic repression, Robinson personally confronted some of the worst political troubles of our times. With the skill and expertise familiar to readers of Dauben's earlier works, the book combines an explanation of Robinson's revolutionary achievements in pure and applied mathematics with a description of his odyssey from Hitler's Germany to the United States via conflict-ridden Palestine and wartime Europe.