Herbert Wilf
Encyclopedia
Herbert Saul Wilf is a mathematician
, specializing in combinatorics
and graph theory
. He was the Thomas A. Scott Professor of Mathematics
in Combinatorial Analysis and Computing at the University of Pennsylvania
. He has written numerous books and research papers. Together with Neil Calkin he founded The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics
in 1994 and was its editor-in-chief until 2001.
and Donald Knuth
. One of Wilf's former students is Richard Garfield
, the creator of the collectible card game
Magic: The Gathering
. He also served as a thesis advisor for E. Roy Weintraub
in the late 1960s.
In 2002, Wilf was awarded the Euler Medal
by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.
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....
, specializing in combinatorics
Combinatorics
Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of finite or countable discrete structures. Aspects of combinatorics include counting the structures of a given kind and size , deciding when certain criteria can be met, and constructing and analyzing objects meeting the criteria ,...
and graph theory
Graph theory
In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of graphs, mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects from a certain collection. A "graph" in this context refers to a collection of vertices or 'nodes' and a collection of edges that connect pairs of...
. He was the Thomas A. Scott Professor of Mathematics
Thomas A. Scott Professorship of Mathematics
The Thomas A. Scott Professorship of Mathematics is an academic grant made to the University of Pennsylvania. It was established in 1881 by the railroad executive and financier: Thomas Alexander Scott.-Recipients:*Ezra Otis Kendall, 1881 – 1899...
in Combinatorial Analysis and Computing at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. He has written numerous books and research papers. Together with Neil Calkin he founded The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics
Electronic Journal of Combinatorics
The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics is a peer-reviewed academic journal specialising in combinatorial mathematics. Papers published by the journal are available free on the internet without registration....
in 1994 and was its editor-in-chief until 2001.
Biography
H. S. Wilf is the author of numerous papers and books, and has been adviser and mentor to many students and colleagues. His collaborators include Doron ZeilbergerDoron Zeilberger
Doron Zeilberger is an Israeli mathematician, known for his work in combinatorics.He is a Board of Governors Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University...
and Donald Knuth
Donald Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.He is the author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms...
. One of Wilf's former students is Richard Garfield
Richard Garfield
Richard Channing Garfield is a mathematics professor and game designer who created the card games Magic: The Gathering, Netrunner, BattleTech CCG, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle , The Great Dalmuti, Star Wars Trading Card Game, and the board game RoboRally...
, the creator of the collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
. He also served as a thesis advisor for E. Roy Weintraub
E. Roy Weintraub
E. Roy Weintraub is an American economist and mathematician. He works as a Professor of Economics in Duke University.Weintraub was trained as a mathematician though his professional career has been as an economist. In recent years his research and teaching activities have focused upon the history...
in the late 1960s.
Selected publications
- The Number of Independent Sets in a Grid Graph
NJ Calkin, HS Wilf - SIAM Journal on Discrete MathematicsSIAM Journal on Discrete MathematicsSIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics is a peer-reviewed mathematics journal published quarterly by SIAM.The journal includes articles on pure and applied discrete mathematics....
, 1998 - An inequality for the chromatic number of a graph
G Szekeres, HS Wilf - J. Combinatorial Theory, 1968
Books
- A=B (with Doron ZeilbergerDoron ZeilbergerDoron Zeilberger is an Israeli mathematician, known for his work in combinatorics.He is a Board of Governors Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University...
and Marko PetkovšekMarko PetkovšekMarko Petkovšek is a Slovenian mathematician, born: 1955, working mainly in symbolic computation.He is a professor of discrete and computational mathematics at the University of Ljubljana. He completed his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University...
) - Algorithms and Complexity
- generatingfunctionology.
- Mathematics for the Physical Sciences
Lecture notes
- East Side, West Side
- Lectures on Integer Partitions
- Lecture Notes on Numerical Analysis (with Dennis Deturck)
Awards
In 1998, Wilf and Zeilberger received the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research for their joint paper, "Rational functions certify combinatorial identities" (Journal of the American Mathematical Society, 3 (1990) 147–158). The prize citation reads: "New mathematical ideas can have an impact on experts in a field, on people outside the field, and on how the field develops after the idea has been introduced. The remarkably simple idea of the work of Wilf and Zeilberger has already changed a part of mathematics for the experts, for the high-level users outside the area, and the area itself." Their work has been translated into computer packages that have greatly simplified hypergeometric summation.In 2002, Wilf was awarded the Euler Medal
Euler Medal
The Euler Medal, named after the 18th century mathematician Leonhard Euler, is an honor awarded annually by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications to a member with a distinguished lifetime contribution to combinatorial research who are still active in research.-Laureates:* 2008: Gabor...
by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.