The
American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
s dedicated to the interests of
mathematicalMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.
The society is one of the four parts of the
Joint Policy Board for MathematicsThe Joint Policy Board for Mathematics consists of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics....
(JPBM) and a member of the
Conference Board of the Mathematical SciencesThe Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences is an umbrella organization of seventeen professional societies in the mathematical sciences in the United States.-Member societies:* AMATYC American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges...
(CBMS).
History
It was founded in 1888 as the
New York Mathematical Society, the brainchild of
Thomas FiskeThomas Scott Fiske was an American mathematician. He was born in New York City and graduated in 1885 from Columbia University, where he was a fellow, assistant, tutor, instructor, and adjunct professor until 1897, when he became professor of mathematics. In 1899 he was acting dean of Barnard...
who was impressed by the
London Mathematical Society-See also:* American Mathematical Society* Edinburgh Mathematical Society* European Mathematical Society* List of Mathematical Societies* Council for the Mathematical Sciences* BCS-FACS Specialist Group-External links:* * *...
on a visit to England.
John Howard Van AmringeJohn Howard Van Amringe was a U.S. educator and mathematician. He was born in Philadelphia, and graduated from Columbia in 1860. Thereafter, he taught mathematics at Columbia, holding a professorship from 1865 to 1910 when he retired...
was the first president and Fiske became secretary. The society soon decided to publish a journal, but ran into some resistance, due to concerns about competing with the
American Journal of MathematicsThe American Journal of Mathematics is a bimonthly mathematics journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.- History :The American Journal of Mathematics is the oldest continuously-published mathematical journal in the United States, established in 1878 at the Johns Hopkins University...
. The result was the
Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society, with Fiske as editor-in-chief. The de facto journal, as intended, was influential in increasing membership.
In July, 1894, the society reorganized under its present name and became a national society. In 1951, the headquarters moved from
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to
Providence, Rhode IslandProvidence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. The society added an office in
Ann Arbor, MichiganAnn Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
in 1984 and an office in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1992.
The popularity of the
Bulletin soon led to
Transactions of the American Mathematical SocietyTransactions of the American Mathematical Society is a monthly mathematics journal published by the American Mathematical Society. It started in 1900...
and
Proceedings of the American Mathematical SocietyProceedings of the American Mathematical Society is a monthly mathematics journal published by the American Mathematical Society. As a requirement, all articles must be at most 15 printed pages....
, which were also
de facto journals. It was not until 1988 that the
Journal of the American Mathematical SocietyThe Journal of the American Mathematical Society , is a quarterly, peer reviewed, mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society. The editors are Weinan E, Sergey Fomin, Gregory Lawler, John W. Morgan, Karl Rubin, and Terence Tao...
was created, with the intent of being the flagship journal of the AMS.
The Society makes an effort to improve the quality of mathematics teaching in the US. For example, in 1954 it called for the creation of a new teaching degree, a Doctor of Arts in Mathematics, similar to a PhD but without a research thesis.
Meetings
The AMS, along with the
Mathematical Association of AmericaThe Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...
and other organizations, holds the largest annual research mathematics meeting in the world, the
Joint Mathematics MeetingThe Joint Mathematics Meetings are a mathematics conference hosted annually in early January by the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America . Frequently, several other national mathematics organizations also participate...
held in early January. The 2008 Joint Mathematics Meeting drew a record 5500 attendees. Each of the four regional sections of the AMS (Central, Eastern, Southeastern and Western) hold meetings in the spring and fall of each year. The society also co-sponsors meetings with other international mathematical societies.
Publications
The AMS publishes
Mathematical ReviewsMathematical Reviews is a journal and online database published by the American Mathematical Society that contains brief synopses of many articles in mathematics, statistics and theoretical computer science.- Reviews :...
, a database of reviews of mathematical publications, various journals, and books. In 1997 the AMS acquired the Chelsea Publishing Company, which it continues to use as an imprint.
Journals:
- General
- Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
The Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society is a quarterly mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society...
- published quarterly,
- Electronic Research Announcements of the American Mathematical Society - online only,
- Journal of the American Mathematical Society
The Journal of the American Mathematical Society , is a quarterly, peer reviewed, mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society. The editors are Weinan E, Sergey Fomin, Gregory Lawler, John W. Morgan, Karl Rubin, and Terence Tao...
- published quarterly,
- Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society
Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society is a mathematical journal published six times per year by the American Mathematical Society. It is intended to carry papers on new mathematical research between 80 and 200 pages in length....
- published six times per year,
- Notices of the American Mathematical Society
Notices of the American Mathematical Society is a membership magazine of the American Mathematical Society, published monthly except for the combined June/July issue. It is the world's most widely read mathematics magazine, sent to the approximately 30,000 AMS members worldwide...
- published monthly, one of the most widely read mathematical periodicals,
- Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society is a monthly mathematics journal published by the American Mathematical Society. As a requirement, all articles must be at most 15 printed pages....
- published monthly,
- Transactions of the American Mathematical Society
Transactions of the American Mathematical Society is a monthly mathematics journal published by the American Mathematical Society. It started in 1900...
- published monthly,
- Subject-specific
Prizes
Some prizes are awarded jointly with other mathematical organizations. See specific articles for details.
- Bôcher Memorial Prize
The Bôcher Memorial Prize was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1923 in memory of Maxime Bôcher with an initial endowment of $1,450 . It is awarded every five years for a notable research memoir in analysis that has appeared during the past six years in a recognized North American...
- Cole Prize
The Frank Nelson Cole Prize, or Cole Prize for short, is one of two prizes awarded to mathematicians by the American Mathematical Society, one for an outstanding contribution to algebra, and the other for an outstanding contribution to number theory. The prize is named after Frank Nelson Cole, who...
- Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Student
The Morgan Prize is an annual award given to an undergraduate student in the US, Canada, or Mexico who demonstrates superior mathematics research. The $1,000 award, endowed by Mrs. Frank Morgan of Allentown, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1995...
- Fulkerson Prize
The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Programming Society and the American Mathematical Society . Up to three awards of $1500 each are presented at each International Symposium of the MPS...
- Leroy P. Steele Prizes
- Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics
The Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics is a $5000 prize awarded every three years to for an outstanding contribution to "applied mathematics in the highest and broadest sense." It was endowed in 1967 in honor of Norbert Wiener by MIT's mathematics department and is provided jointly by the...
- Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry
The Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry is an award granted by the American Mathematical Society for notable research in geometry or topology. It was founded in 1961 in memory of Oswald Veblen...
Typesetting
The AMS was an early advocate of the typesetting program
TeXTeX is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Within the typesetting system, its name is formatted as ....
, requiring that contributions be written in it and producing its own packages AMS-TeX and
AMS-LaTeXAMS-LaTeX is a collection ofLaTeX document classes and packages developed for the American Mathematical Society . Its additions to LaTeX include the typesetting of multi-line and other mathematical statements, document classes, and fonts containing numerous mathematical symbols.It has largely...
. TeX and LaTeX are now ubiquitous in mathematical publishing.
Presidents
The AMS is led by the President, who is elected for a two-year term, and cannot serve for two consecutive terms.
1888 – 1900
- John Howard Van Amringe
John Howard Van Amringe was a U.S. educator and mathematician. He was born in Philadelphia, and graduated from Columbia in 1860. Thereafter, he taught mathematics at Columbia, holding a professorship from 1865 to 1910 when he retired...
(New York Mathematical Society) (1888–1890)
- Emory McClintock
Emory McClintock was an American actuary, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Columbia University, where he was tutor in mathematics in 1859-1860. From 1863 to 1866 he served as United States consular agent at Bradford, England...
(New York Mathematical Society) (1891–94)
- George Hill
George William Hill , was an American astronomer and mathematician.Hill was born in New York City, New York to painter and engraver John William Hill. and Catherine Smith Hill. He moved to West Nyack with his family when he was eight years old. After attending high school, Hill graduated from...
(1895–96)
- Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel.-Early life:Simon Newcomb was born in the town of...
(1897–98)
- Robert Woodward
Robert Simpson Woodward was an American physicist and mathematician, born at Rochester, Michigan. He graduated C.E. at the University of Michigan in 1872 and was appointed assistant engineer on the United States Lake Survey. In 1882 he became assistant astronomer for the United States Transit of...
(1899–1900)
1901 – 1950
- Eliakim Moore
Eliakim Hastings Moore was an American mathematician.-Life:Moore, the son of a Methodist minister and grandson of US Congressman Eliakim H. Moore, discovered mathematics through a summer job at the Cincinnati Observatory while in high school. He learned mathematics at Yale University, where he was...
(1901–02)
- Thomas Fiske
Thomas Scott Fiske was an American mathematician. He was born in New York City and graduated in 1885 from Columbia University, where he was a fellow, assistant, tutor, instructor, and adjunct professor until 1897, when he became professor of mathematics. In 1899 he was acting dean of Barnard...
(1903–04)
- William Osgood
William Fogg Osgood was an American mathematician, born in Boston.In 1886, he graduated from Harvard, where, after studying at the universities of Göttingen and Erlangen , he was instructor , assistant professor , and thenceforth professor of mathematics...
(1905–06)
- Henry White
Henry Seely White was an American mathematician. He was born in Cazenovia, New York to parents Aaron White and Isadore Maria Haight. He matriculated at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and graduated with honors in 1882 at the age of twenty-one. White excelled at Wesleyan in astronomy, ethics, ...
(1907–08)
- Maxime Bôcher
Maxime Bôcher was an American mathematician who published about 100 papers on differential equations, series, and algebra. He also wrote elementary texts such as Trigonometry and Analytic Geometry. Bôcher's theorem, Bôcher's equation, and the Bôcher Memorial Prize are named after him.-Life:Bôcher...
(1909–10)
- Henry Fine
Henry Burchard Fine was an American university dean and mathematician.Fine was born at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and was educated at Princeton and Leipzig universities...
(1911–12)
- Edward Van Vleck
Edward Burr Van Vleck was an American mathematician.The son of astronomer John Monroe Van Vleck, he graduated from Wesleyan University in 1884, attended Johns Hopkins in 1885-87, and studied at Göttingen...
(1913–14)
- Ernest Brown
Ernest William Brown FRS was a British mathematician and astronomer, who spent the majority of his career working in the United States....
(1915–16)
- Leonard Dickson
Leonard Eugene Dickson was an American mathematician. He was one of the first American researchers in abstract algebra, in particular the theory of finite fields and classical groups, and is also remembered for a three-volume history of number theory.-Life:Dickson considered himself a Texan by...
(1917–18)
- Frank Morley
Frank Morley was a leading mathematician, known mostly for his teaching and research in the fields of algebra and geometry...
(1919–20)
- Gilbert Bliss
Gilbert Ames Bliss, , was an American mathematician, known for his work on the calculus of variations.-Life:...
(1921–22)
- Oswald Veblen
Oswald Veblen was an American mathematician, geometer and topologist, whose work found application in atomic physics and the theory of relativity. He proved the Jordan curve theorem in 1905.-Life:...
(1923–24)
- George Birkhoff
-External links:* − from National Academies Press, by Oswald Veblen....
(1925–26)
- Virgil Snyder (1927–28)
- Earle Raymond Hedrick
Earle Raymond Hedrick , was an American mathematician and a vice-president of the University of California.Hedrick was born in Union City, Indiana....
(1929–30)
- Luther Eisenhart
Luther Pfahler Eisenhart was an American mathematician, best known today for his contributions to semi-Riemannian geometry.-Life:...
(1931–32)
- Arthur Byron Coble
Arthur Byron Coble was an American mathematician. He did research on finite geometries and the group theory related to them, Cremona transformations associated with the Galois theory of equations, and the relations between hyperelliptic theta functions, irrational binary invariants, the Weddle...
(1933–34)
- Solomon Lefschetz
Solomon Lefschetz was an American mathematician who did fundamental work on algebraic topology, its applications to algebraic geometry, and the theory of non-linear ordinary differential equations.-Life:...
(1935–36)
- Robert Moore
Robert Lee Moore was an American mathematician, known for his work in general topology and the Moore method of teaching university mathematics.-Life:...
(1937–38)
- Griffith C. Evans (1939–40)
- Marston Morse
Harold Calvin Marston Morse was an American mathematician best known for his work on the calculus of variations in the large, a subject where he introduced the technique of differential topology now known as Morse theory...
(1941–42)
- Marshall Stone
Marshall Harvey Stone was an American mathematician who contributed to real analysis, functional analysis, and the study of Boolean algebras.-Biography:...
(1943–44)
- Theophil Hildebrandt (1945–46)
- Einar Hille
Carl Einar Hille was a Swedish American mathematician.Hille was born in New York to Swedish immigrant parents. He was the son of Carl August Heuman, a civil engineer, and Edla Eckman. When Einar Hille was two years old his mother returned to Sweden and lived in Stockholm...
(1947–48)
- Joseph Walsh
Joseph Leonard Walsh, was an American mathematician. His work was mainly in the field of analysis.For most of his professional career he studied and worked at Harvard University. He received a B.S. in 1916 and a PhD in 1920. The Advisor of his PhD was Maxime Bôcher...
(1949–50)
1951 – 2000
- John von Neumann
John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...
(1951–52)
- Gordon Whyburn (1953–54)
- Raymond Wilder
Raymond Louis Wilder was an American mathematician, who specialized in topology and gradually acquired philosophical and anthropological interests.-Life:...
(1955–56)
- Richard Brauer
Richard Dagobert Brauer was a leading German and American mathematician. He worked mainly in abstract algebra, but made important contributions to number theory...
(1957–58)
- Edward McShane (1959–60)
- Deane Montgomery
Deane Montgomery was a mathematician specializing in topology who was one of the contributors to the final resolution of Hilbert's fifth problem in the 1950s. He served as President of the American Mathematical Society from 1961 to 1962....
(1961–62)
- Joseph Doob
Joseph Leo Doob was an American mathematician, specializing in analysis and probability theory.The theory of martingales was developed by Doob.-Early life and education:...
(1963–64)
- Abraham Albert
Abraham Adrian Albert was an American mathematician. In 1939, he received the first American Mathematical Society's Cole Prize in Algebra for his work on Riemann matrices...
(1965–66)
- Charles B. Morrey, Jr.
Charles Bradfield Morrey Jr. was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the calculus of variations and the theory of partial differential equations.- Life :Charles Bradfield Morrey Jr...
(1967–68)
- Oscar Zariski
Oscar Zariski was a Russian mathematician and one of the most influential algebraic geometers of the 20th century.-Education:...
(1969–70)
- Nathan Jacobson
Nathan Jacobson was an American mathematician....
(1971–72)
- Saunders Mac Lane
Saunders Mac Lane was an American mathematician who cofounded category theory with Samuel Eilenberg.-Career:...
(1973–74)
- Lipman Bers
Lipman Bers was an American mathematician born in Riga who created the theory of pseudoanalytic functions and worked on Riemann surfaces and Kleinian groups.-Biography:...
(1975–76)
- R. H. Bing
R. H. Bing was an American mathematician who worked mainly in the areas of geometric topology and continuum theory...
(1977–78)
- Peter Lax
Peter David Lax is a mathematician working in the areas of pure and applied mathematics. He has made important contributions to integrable systems, fluid dynamics and shock waves, solitonic physics, hyperbolic conservation laws, and mathematical and scientific computing, among other fields...
(1979–80)
- Andrew Gleason
Andrew Mattei Gleason was an American mathematician and the eponym of Gleason's theorem and the Greenwood–Gleason graph. After briefly attending Berkeley High School he graduated from Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, then Yale University in 1942, where he became a Putnam Fellow...
(1981–82)
- Julia Robinson
Julia Hall Bowman Robinson was an American mathematician best known for her work on decision problems and Hilbert's Tenth Problem.-Background and education:...
(1983–84)
- Irving Kaplansky
Irving Kaplansky was a Canadian mathematician.-Biography:He was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, after his parents emigrated from Poland and attended the University of Toronto as an undergraduate. After receiving his Ph.D...
(1985–86)
- George Mostow
George Mostow is an American mathematician, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Henry Ford II Professor of Mathematics at Yale University, the 49th President of the American Mathematical Society ,...
(1987–88)
- William Browder
William Browder is an American mathematician, specializing in algebraic topology, differential topology and differential geometry...
(1989–90)
- Michael Artin
Michael Artin is an American mathematician and a professor emeritus in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematics department, known for his contributions to algebraic geometry. and also generally recognized as one of the outstanding professors in his field.Artin was born in Hamburg,...
(1991–92)
- Ronald Graham
Ronald Lewis Graham is a mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as being "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years"...
(1993–94)
- Cathleen Morawetz
Cathleen Synge Morawetz is a mathematician. Morawetz's research was mainly in the study of the partial differential equations governing fluid flow, particularly those of mixed type occurring in transonic flow...
(1995–96)
- Arthur Jaffe
Arthur Jaffe is an American mathematical physicist and a professor at Harvard University. Born on December 22, 1937 he attended Princeton University as an undergraduate obtaining a degree in chemistry, and later Clare College, Cambridge, as a Marshall Scholar, obtaining a degree in mathematics...
(1997–98)
- Felix Browder
Felix E. Browder is a United States mathematician.Felix Browder received his doctorate from Princeton University in 1948. He is known for his research in nonlinear functional analysis, including the theory of semigroups, monotone operators, and fixed points of Cesàro sums of non-expansive operators...
(1999–2000)
2001 –
- Hyman Bass
Hyman Bass is an American mathematician, known for work in algebra and in mathematics education. From 1959-1998 he was Professor in the Mathematics Department at Columbia University, where he is now professor emeritus...
(2001–02)
- David Eisenbud
David Eisenbud is an American mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley and was Director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute from 1997 to 2007....
(2003–04)
- James Arthur
James Greig Arthur , is a Canadian mathematician and former President of the American Mathematical Society. He is currently in the Mathematics Departmentof the University of Toronto....
(2005–06)
- James Glimm
James Gilbert Glimm is an American mathematical physicist, and Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.James Glimm was born in Peoria, Illinois, USA on 24 March 1934.- Career :...
(2007–08)
- George E. Andrews (2009–10)
- Eric M. Friedlander (2011-12)
See also
- Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...
- European Mathematical Society
The European Mathematical Society is a European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. Its members are different mathematical societies in Europe, academic institutions and individual mathematicians...
- List of Mathematical Societies
External links