Julia Robinson
Encyclopedia
Julia Hall Bowman Robinson (December 8, 1919 – July 30, 1985) was an American
mathematician
best known for her work on decision problems and Hilbert's Tenth Problem
.
, the daughter of Ralph Bowers Bowman and Helen (Hall) Bowman.
Her older sister was the mathematical popularizer and biographer Constance Reid
. The family moved to Arizona
and then to San Diego when the girls were a few years old. Julia attended San Diego High.
She entered San Diego State University
in 1936 and transferred as a senior to University of California, Berkeley
in 1939. She received her BA
degree in 1940 and continued in graduate studies. She received the Ph.D.
degree in 1948 under Alfred Tarski
with a dissertation on "Definability and Decision Problems in Arithmetic".
has any solutions in integers. A series of results developed in the 1940s through 1970 by Robinson, Martin Davis
, Hilary Putnam
, and Yuri Matiyasevich
resolved this problem in the negative; that is, they showed that no such algorithm can exist.
George Csicsery produced and directed a one-hour documentary about Robinson titled Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem, that premiered at the Joint Mathematics Meeting
in San Diego on January 7, 2008. Notices of the American Mathematical Society
printed a film review
and an interview with the director.
College Mathematics Journal
also published a film review.
's first Incompleteness Theorem).
in statistics
. The second was a 1951 paper in game theory
where she proved that the fictitious play
dynamics converges to the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium
in two-player zero-sum
games. This was posed as a prize problem at RAND
with a $200 prize, but she did not receive the prize because she was a RAND employee at the time.
's campaign manager in Contra Costa County when he ran for his first political office, state controller.
as a child, and as an adult she suffered poor health and shortness of breath. She married Berkeley professor Raphael Robinson in 1941. In 1961 she underwent an operation to remove the scar tissue from her mitral valve
. The operation was a success and she became much more active physically and took up bicycling for exercise. In 1984 she was diagnosed with leukemia
. She underwent treatment and went into remission for a few months, but then the disease recurred and she died in Oakland, California
on July 30, 1985.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
best known for her work on decision problems and Hilbert's Tenth Problem
Hilbert's tenth problem
Hilbert's tenth problem is the tenth on the list of Hilbert's problems of 1900. Its statement is as follows:Given a Diophantine equation with any number of unknown quantities and with rational integral numerical coefficients: To devise a process according to which it can be determined in a finite...
.
Background and education
Robinson was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, the daughter of Ralph Bowers Bowman and Helen (Hall) Bowman.
Her older sister was the mathematical popularizer and biographer Constance Reid
Constance Reid
Constance Bowman Reid was the author of several biographies of mathematicians and popular books about mathematics. She received several awards for mathematical exposition. She was not a mathematician but comes from a mathematical family: Her sister is Julia Robinson and her brother-in-law is...
. The family moved to Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and then to San Diego when the girls were a few years old. Julia attended San Diego High.
She entered San Diego State University
San Diego State University
San Diego State University , founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area , and is part of the California State University system...
in 1936 and transferred as a senior to University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1939. She received her BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1940 and continued in graduate studies. She received the Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
degree in 1948 under Alfred Tarski
Alfred Tarski
Alfred Tarski was a Polish logician and mathematician. Educated at the University of Warsaw and a member of the Lwow-Warsaw School of Logic and the Warsaw School of Mathematics and philosophy, he emigrated to the USA in 1939, and taught and carried out research in mathematics at the University of...
with a dissertation on "Definability and Decision Problems in Arithmetic".
Mathematics career
In 1975 she became a full professor at Berkeley, teaching quarter-time because she still did not feel strong enough for a full-time job.Hilbert's tenth problem
Hilbert's tenth problem asks for an algorithm to determine whether a Diophantine equationDiophantine equation
In mathematics, a Diophantine equation is an indeterminate polynomial equation that allows the variables to be integers only. Diophantine problems have fewer equations than unknown variables and involve finding integers that work correctly for all equations...
has any solutions in integers. A series of results developed in the 1940s through 1970 by Robinson, Martin Davis
Martin Davis
Martin David Davis, is an American mathematician, known for his work on Hilbert's tenth problem . He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1950, where his adviser was Alonzo Church . He is Professor Emeritus at New York University. He is the co-inventor of the Davis-Putnam and the DPLL...
, Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Whitehall Putnam is an American philosopher, mathematician and computer scientist, who has been a central figure in analytic philosophy since the 1960s, especially in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science...
, and Yuri Matiyasevich
Yuri Matiyasevich
Yuri Vladimirovich Matiyasevich, is a Russian mathematician and computer scientist. He is best known for his negative solution of Hilbert's tenth problem, presented in his doctoral thesis, at LOMI .- Biography :* In 1962-1963 studied at Saint Petersburg Lyceum 239...
resolved this problem in the negative; that is, they showed that no such algorithm can exist.
George Csicsery produced and directed a one-hour documentary about Robinson titled Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem, that premiered at the Joint Mathematics Meeting
Joint Mathematics Meeting
The 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...
in San Diego on January 7, 2008. Notices of the American Mathematical Society
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...
printed a film review
and an interview with the director.
College Mathematics Journal
College Mathematics Journal
The College Mathematics Journal, published by the Mathematical Association of America, is an expository journal aimed at teachers of college mathematics, particular those teaching the first two years. It is a continuation of Two-Year College Mathematics Journal. It covers all aspects of mathematics...
also published a film review.
Other decidability work
Her Ph.D. thesis was on "Definability and Decision Problems in Arithmetic". In it she showed that the theory of the rational numbers was undecidable by showing that elementary number theory could be defined in terms of the rationals, and elementary number theory was already known to be undecidable (this is GödelGodel
Godel or similar can mean:*Kurt Gödel , an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher*Gödel...
's first Incompleteness Theorem).
Other mathematical works
Robinson's work only strayed from decision problems twice. The first time was her first paper, published in 1948, on sequential analysisSequential analysis
In statistics, sequential analysis or sequential hypothesis testing is statistical analysis where the sample size is not fixed in advance. Instead data are evaluated as they are collected, and further sampling is stopped in accordance with a pre-defined stopping rule as soon as significant results...
in statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
. The second was a 1951 paper in game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
where she proved that the fictitious play
Fictitious play
In game theory, fictitious play is a learning rule first introduced by G.W. Brown . In it, each player presumes that the opponents are playing stationary strategies. At each round, each player thus best responds to the empirical frequency of play of his opponent...
dynamics converges to the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium
Nash equilibrium
In game theory, Nash equilibrium is a solution concept of a game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only his own strategy unilaterally...
in two-player zero-sum
Zero-sum
In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which a participant's gain of utility is exactly balanced by the losses of the utility of other participant. If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are...
games. This was posed as a prize problem at RAND
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
with a $200 prize, but she did not receive the prize because she was a RAND employee at the time.
Political work
Robinson was attracted to politics by the 1952 presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson. (Stevenson was her husband's first cousin, but it was his ideas that attracted her and not the family connection.) In the 1950s Robinson was active in local Democratic party activities, and did less mathematics. She stuffed envelopes, rang doorbells, asked for votes, and so on. She was Alan CranstonAlan Cranston
Alan MacGregor Cranston was an American journalist and Democratic Senator from California.-Education:Cranston earned his high school diploma from the old Mountain View High School, where among other things, he was a track star...
's campaign manager in Contra Costa County when he ran for his first political office, state controller.
Personal life
Robinson's heart had been damaged by rheumatic feverRheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that occurs following a Streptococcus pyogenes infection, such as strep throat or scarlet fever. Believed to be caused by antibody cross-reactivity that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain, the illness typically develops two to three weeks after...
as a child, and as an adult she suffered poor health and shortness of breath. She married Berkeley professor Raphael Robinson in 1941. In 1961 she underwent an operation to remove the scar tissue from her mitral valve
Mitral valve
The mitral valve is a dual-flap valve in the heart that lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle...
. The operation was a success and she became much more active physically and took up bicycling for exercise. In 1984 she was diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. She underwent treatment and went into remission for a few months, but then the disease recurred and she died in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
on July 30, 1985.
Honors
- United States National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
elected 1975 (first woman mathematician elected) - Noether Lecturer 1982
- MacArthur Fellowship 1983
- President of American Mathematical SocietyAmerican Mathematical SocietyThe American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical 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...
1983–1984 (first woman president) - The Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research InstituteMathematical Sciences Research InstituteThe Mathematical Sciences Research Institute , founded in 1982, is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution whose funding sources include the National Science Foundation, foundations, corporations, and more than 90 universities and institutions...
, 2007-present, was named in her honor.
External links
- "Julia Bowman Robinson", Biographies of Women Mathematicians, Agnes Scott CollegeAgnes Scott CollegeAgnes Scott College is a private undergraduate college in the United States. Agnes Scott's campus lies in downtown Decatur, Georgia, nestled inside the perimeter of the bustling metro-Atlanta area....
- Julia Bowman Robinson on the Internet (mirror)