Jacob Tamarkin: He showed up as a foreigner on our shores

Jacob David Tamarkin (Яков Давыдович Тамаркин) – outstanding Russian-American mathematician, best known for his work in mathematical analysis. Born in Chernihiv (now Ukraine) in a Jewish family, he graduated from the Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium, where he was a schoolmate friend of Alexander Friedmann. While still in gymnasium Tamakin and Friedman co-authored a paper on the Bernulli numbers, that was published in a respected German journal Mathematische Annalen. After the gymnasium Tamarkin studied at the physico-mathematical faculty of the Saint Petersburg University. There he trained and worked under the supervision of Vladimir Steklov. After the graduation Tamakin prepared and defended a dissertation in the field of differential equations from the same University under supervision of Andrei Markov. In 1919-1920 he was a professor and acting dean of physics-mathematical college in Perm University. In 1925 emigrated to United States, and soon became a faculty in Brown University (Providence, RI), where he worked till his passing. Created the scientific school, supervised over dozen dissertations. Was a friend and collaborator of Norbert Wiener, the originator of cybernetics. Was greatly respected and trusted by his colleagues, was served a vice president of the American Mathematical Society and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In memory of Prof. Jacob Tamarkin we post an article of his fiend and long time collaborator Einar Hille, a reference to his biographical page at Mathematics Genealogy Project (math.info) and a list of his selected publications.