Yael Dowker

Yael Naim Dowker (1919–2016)[1] was an English mathematician, prominent especially due to her work in the fields of measure theory, ergodic theory and topological dynamics.

Yael Dowker
Yael Dowker in New Orleans, 1961.
Born
Yael Naim

1919
Tel Aviv
Died2016 (aged 96–97)
Academic background
Alma materJohns Hopkins University,
Radcliffe College
ThesisThe Ergodic Theorems and Invariant Measure
Doctoral advisorWitold Hurewicz
Academic work
DisciplineMathematics
InstitutionsInstitute for Advanced Study,
Victoria University of Manchester,
University of London

Biography

Yael Naim (later Dowker) was born in Tel Aviv.[1] She left for the United States to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1941, as a graduate student, she met Clifford Hugh Dowker, a Canadian topologist working as an instructor there. The couple married in 1944. From 1943 to 1946 they worked together at the Radiation Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Clifford also worked as a civilian adviser for the United States Air Force during World War II.[2]

Dowker did her doctorate at Radcliffe College (in Cambridge, Massachusetts) under Witold Hurewicz (a Polish mathematician known for the Hurewicz theorem). She published her thesis Invariant measure and the ergodic theorems in 1947 and received her Ph.D in 1948.[3] In the period between 1948 and 1949, she did post-doctoral work at the Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey. A few years after the war, McCarthyism became a common phenomenon in the academic world, with several of the Dowker couple's friends in the mathematical community harassed and one arrested. In 1950, they emigrated to the United Kingdom.[2]

In 1951 Dowker served as a professor at the University of Manchester,[4] and later went on as a professor at the Imperial College London, where she was the first female reader within the department.[1] While there, among the students she advised was Bill Parry, who published his thesis in 1960.[3] She also cooperated on some of her work with the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős (Erdős' number of one). She worked with her husband with gifted children who were having difficulties at school for the National association for gifted children.[1][2]

Legacy

The best PhD award at Imperial College London is given in her name each year.[5]

Works
  • Invariant measure and the ergodic theorems, Duke Math. J. 14 (1947), 1051–1061
  • Finite and -finite measures, Annals of Mathematics, 54 (1951), 595–608
  • The mean and transitive points of homeomorphisms, Annals of Mathematics, 58 (1953), 123–133
  • On limit sets in dynamical systems, Proc. London Math. Soc. 4 (1954), 168–176 (with Friedlander, F. G.)
  • On minimal sets in dynamical systems, Quart. J. Math. Oxford Ser. (2) 7 (1956), 5–16
  • Some examples in ergodic theory, Proc. London Math. Soc. 9 (1959), 227–241 (with Erdős, Paul)

References
  1. Barrett, Anne (2017). Women At Imperial College; Past, Present And Future. World Scientific. p. 303. ISBN 9781786342645.
  2. James, I. M.; Kronheimer, E. H. (31 January 1985). Aspects of Topology: In Memory of Hugh Dowker 1912–1982. Cambridge University Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-521-27815-7.
  3. "Yael Dowker". Mathematics Genealogy Project. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. "Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society". American Mathematical Society. 1951: 100. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Anne, Barrett (2017-02-24). Women At Imperial College; Past, Present And Future. World Scientific. ISBN 9781786342645.
  • "Yael N. Dowker". Institute for Advanced Study. 1948-09-20. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  • "Yael Dowker". The Mathematics Genealogy Project. 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
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