Garrett Birkhoff

2026-01-21 09:30:32

Garrett Birkhoff (Princeton, New Jersey, USA, January 19, 1911 – November 22, 1996, Water Mill, New York, USA) was an American mathematician and the founder of universal algebra. He is also known for his work in radar, ballistics, and hydrodynamics. His monographs "Hydrodynamics" (1950) and "Jets, Wakes, and Cavities" (1957) have been translated into Russian. As a consultant to General Motors (1959), he recommended the use of cubic splines for modeling smooth curves. He is a full member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1968) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His awards include the John von Neumann Lecture (1981).