Joseph J. Rotman

Joseph J. Rotman (May 26, 1934 – October 16, 2016[1]) was a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign[2] and also a published author of 10 textbooks.

Rotman was born in Chicago. He did his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Chicago, where he received his doctorate in 1959 with a thesis in abelian groups written under the direction of Irving Kaplansky.[3] In 1959 he moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he spent the rest of his mathematical career. Rotman retired from UIUC in 2004.[4] His research interests lay in the area of algebra, involving abelian groups, modules, homological algebra, and combinatorics.[5]

Rotman was the Managing Editor of the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society in 1972–1973.[4] In 1985 he was the Annual Visiting Lecturer of the South African Mathematical Society.[6]

A partial list of Rotman's publications includes:

  • An Introduction to Homological Algebra (1979), Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 85, Academic Press; ISBN 0-12-599250-5[7]
  • An Introduction to Algebraic Topology (1988), Springer-Verlag; ISBN 0-387-96678-1
  • An Introduction to the Theory of Groups (1995), Springer-Verlag; ISBN 0-387-94285-8
  • A First Course in Abstract Algebra (2000), Prentice Hall; ISBN 0-13-011584-3
  • Advanced Modern Algebra (2002), Prentice Hall; ISBN 0-13-087868-5
  • Journey into Mathematics: an introduction to proofs (2006), Dover Publications; ISBN 0-486-45306-5
  1. ^ Joseph Rotman (obituary), The News-Gazette, Tuesday, October 18, 2016.
  2. ^ "J. Rotman". uiuc.edu. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
  3. ^ Joseph J. Rotman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  4. ^ a b Retirements: Joseph Rotman Archived 2016-10-20 at the Wayback Machine, Math Times, Spring 2004, p. 9, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
  5. ^ "J. Rotman". uiuc.edu. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
  6. ^ Faculty honors Archived 2013-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
  7. ^ Lambek, J. (1983). "Book Review: An introduction to homological algebra". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 8 (2): 371–376. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1983-15128-5. ISSN 0273-0979.