Sy Friedman
Encyclopedia
Sy-David Friedman is an American and Austria
n mathematician
and a professor of mathematics
at the University of Vienna
and the director of the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. His main research interest lies in mathematical logic
, in particular in set theory and recursion theory
.
Friedman is the brother of mathematician Harvey Friedman
.
and, from 1970, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. He received his Ph.D.
in 1976 from MIT (his thesis Recursion on Inadmissible Ordinals was written under the supervision of Gerald E. Sacks
).
In 1979 Sy Friedman accepted a position at MIT, and in 1990 he became a full professor there. Since 1999 he has been a professor of mathematical logic at the University of Vienna.
He also published a research monograph
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n 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....
and a professor of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
and the director of the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. His main research interest lies in mathematical logic
Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
, in particular in set theory and recursion theory
Recursion theory
Computability theory, also called recursion theory, is a branch of mathematical logic that originated in the 1930s with the study of computable functions and Turing degrees. The field has grown to include the study of generalized computability and definability...
.
Friedman is the brother of mathematician Harvey Friedman
Harvey Friedman
Harvey Friedman is a mathematical logician at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He is noted especially for his work on reverse mathematics, a project intended to derive the axioms of mathematics from the theorems considered to be necessary...
.
Biography
He studied at Northwestern UniversityNorthwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
and, from 1970, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. He received his 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...
in 1976 from MIT (his thesis Recursion on Inadmissible Ordinals was written under the supervision of Gerald E. Sacks
Gerald Sacks
Gerald Sacks is a logician who holds a joint appointment at Harvard University as a Professor of Mathematical Logic and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Professor Emeritus. His most important contributions have been in recursion theory...
).
In 1979 Sy Friedman accepted a position at MIT, and in 1990 he became a full professor there. Since 1999 he has been a professor of mathematical logic at the University of Vienna.
Selected publications and results
He authored about 70 research articles, including:He also published a research monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...