41. Nathan Jacobson

President, 1971–1972

Ph.D. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 1934

Jacobson was born in Warsaw. After he came to the U.S. he received his A.B. from the University of Alabama (1930). His principal academic appointment was at Yale University, from 1947 until his retirement in 1981. His textbooks on algebra served several generations of students. Jacobson was awarded the AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement in 1998 for his research in ring theory, Lie algebras, and Jordan algebras, and for his contributions to teaching, exposition, and the mathematical profession. Jacobson was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Additional information

• MR Author Profile
• History of the Second Fifty Years: American Mathematical Society, 1939-1988 , by Everett Pitcher (AMS, 1988), which includes AMS Presidents from 1939-1988 (and reports on all aspects of the Society during the period).
• The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
• Mathematics Genealogy Project