Peter Lax

Peter Lax
Peter Lax in Tokyo, 1969
Born
Peter David Lax

(1926-05-01)1 May 1926
Died16 May 2025(2025-05-16) (aged 99)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materStuyvesant High School
Courant Institute
Known forLax–Wendroff method
Lax equivalence theorem
Babuška–Lax–Milgram theorem
Lax pairs
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsCourant Institute
ThesisNonlinear System of Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations in Two Independent Variables (1949)
Doctoral advisorK. O. Friedrichs
Doctoral students
  • Steve Alpern
  • Alexandre Chorin
  • Charles Epstein
  • Ami Harten
  • James (Mac) Hyman
  • George Logemann
  • Jeffrey Rauch
  • Burton Wendroff

Peter David Lax (1 May 1926 – 16 May 2025) was an American mathematician. He was known for his works in integrable systems, fluid dynamics and shock waves, solitonic physics, hyperbolic conservation laws, and mathematical and scientific computing, among other fields. Lax was listed as an ISI highly cited researcher.[1]

Lax was of Jewish descent.[2]

Lax died of cardiac amyloidosis at his New York City home on 16 May 2025 at the age of 99.[3]

References

  1. Thomson ISI. "Lax, Peter D., ISI Highly Cited Researchers". Archived from the original on 4 March 2006. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  2. More Mathematical People, "Peter D. Lax". Donald J. Albers, Gerald L. Alexanderson, Constance Reid. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1990
  3. Barany, Michael J.; Shields, Brit (16 May 2025), "Peter Lax, Pre-eminent Cold War Mathematician, Dies at 99", The New York Times

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