Academic Lineage
NB: There is some controversy about whether this lineage below goes back to Gauss, or to Copernicus, or to both [9]. The genealogy tree changes every year or two as experts research and discuss this. I will provide one branch (to Gauss) below, although sometimes the Mathematics Genealogy page says the Copernicus branch is more likely. I would consult them for the latest opinion. See Ben Kuiper's page and [9] for a detailed argument that Gauss was my Great8-grand Advisor: i.e., Gauss was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand Advisor. Since some ancestors have two advisors, Copernicus is there too.
From Eric Paulos's investigations:
"Seems like a silly thing but I was curious one day so I traced it back as far as I could. Updates to this as I learn more. Individuals are listed in the form (Name / Place of PhD / Date of PhD). I traced it by hand back to 1954 but through the genius of the Theory of Computation Ph.D. Genealogy Database and The TCS Genealogy I was able to go back to 1856. Very nice.
Things get really interesting because Franz Neumann was influenced by Euler and Kirchhoff was one of his students. Also, Carl Neumann was a friend of Ludwig Otto Hesse and studied Riemann surfaces."
Academic Lineage
Camerarius? / Tubingen / 1687
|
Christian August Hausen / Wittenberg Academy / 1713
|
Anraham
Gotthelf Kaestner / Göttingen University / 1739
|
Johann Friedrich Pfaff / Göttingen University / 1788
Dissertation tite: Programma inaugurale in quo peculiarem differentialia investigandi rationem ex theoria functionum deducit
|
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss / Brunswick Collegium Carolinum / 1799
|
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann / Göttingen University / 1849
|
Carl Gottfried Neumann / University of Königsberg, Prussia / 1856
(Note: Carl was the son of
Franz Neumann / Berlin / 1825)
|
William Edward Story / Leipzig / 1875
|
Solomon Lefschetz / Clark University, Worcester, MA / 1911
|
Albert Tucker / Princeton / 1932
|
Marvin Minsky
/ Princeton / 1954
|
Berthold Horn / MIT / 1970
|
Tomas Lozano-Perez / MIT / 1980
|
Bruce Donald / MIT / 1987
|
Former Ph.D. Students
Current Students
PostDocs
I have not constructed a lineage for my postdocs but that would be
interesting to do.
Issues/Questions:
(1) Since I did not do a postdoc, would I be the root of that
tree?
(2) Are Ph.D. students of former postdocs considered `descendants'?
(3) If so, the relations postdoc1 and Ph.D1 do not commute, but in terms of closeness are
they to be treated differently?
(4) Which is more closely related, a postdoc4
or a Ph.D.4 descendent?
(5) More generally, which is more closely related, a postdocn Ph.Dm, or a
postdocm Ph.Dn, descendent?
Thesis Titles and Dates
AUTHOR: Horn, Berthold K. P.
TITLE: Shape from shading; a method
for obtaining the shape of a smooth opaque object from one view.
PUBLISHED: 1970
AUTHOR: Lozano-Perez, Tomas.
TITLE: Spatial planning with polyhedral models
PUBLISHED: c1980.
| 5 | Marvin Minsky | Degree | Ph.D. [2,3,6], Mathematics [8] |
| Institution | Princeton University [2,3,6,8] | ||
| Date | 1954 [2,3,6] | ||
| Title | Neural Nets and the Brain Model Problem (Theory of Neural-Analog Reinforcement Systems and Its Application to the Brain Model Problem [6]) | ||
| Advisor | Albert Tucker [2,3,8]* | ||
| 6 | Albert Tucker | Degree | Ph.D. [2,3], Mathematics |
| Institution | Princeton University [2,3] | ||
| Date | 1932 [2,3] | ||
| Title | An Abstract Approach to Manifolds | ||
| Advisor | Solomon Lefschetz [2,3] | ||
| 7 | Solomon Lefschetz | Degree | Ph.D. [2,3,6], Mathematics |
| Institution | Clark University [2,3,6] | ||
| Date | 1911 [2,3,6] | ||
| Title | On the Existence of Loci with Given Singularities [6] | ||
| Advisor | William Edward Story [2,3,6] | ||
| 8 | William Edward Story | Degree | Ph.D. [2,3,6] |
| Institution | University of Leipzig [2,3,6] | ||
| Date | 1875 [2,3,6] | ||
| Title | On the Algebraic Relations Existing Between the Polars of a Binary Quantic [6] | ||
| Advisor | Carl Gottfried Neumann [2,3,6] | ||
| 9 | Carl Gottfried Neumann | Degree | Ph.D. [2,3,6] |
| Institution | University of Königsberg, Prussia [2,3,6] | ||
| Date | 1856 [2,3,6] | ||
| Title | De problemate quodam mechanico, quod ad primam classem integralium ultraellipticorum revocatur [6] | ||
| Advisor | Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann [3] | ||
| 10 | Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann | Degree | Ph.D. [3,6] |
| Institution | Göttingen University [3] (Georg-August-Universit?t Göttingen [6]) | ||
| Date | 1849 [3] (1851 [6]) | ||
| Title | Grundlagen f?r eine allgemeine Theorie der Funktionen einer ver?nderlichen complexen Gr??e [6] | ||
| Advisor | Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss [3,6] | ||
| 11 | Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss | Degree | Ph.D. [3,4,6] |
| Institution | University of Helmstedt [4,6] ([3] gives Brunswick Collegium Carolinum) | ||
| Date | 1799 [3,4,6] | ||
| Title | Demonstratio nova theorematis omnem functionem algebraicam rationalem integram unius variabilis in factores reales primi vel secundi gradus resolvi posse [4,6] | ||
| Advisor | Johann Friedrich Pfaff [3,4,6] | ||
| 12 | Johann Friedrich Pfaff | Degree | Ph.D. [6] |
| Institution | Göttingen University [3] | ||
| Date | 1788 [3] | ||
| Title | Programma inaugurale in quo peculiarem differentialia investigandi rationem ex theoria functionum deducit [3] | ||
| Advisor | Abraham Gotthelf Kaestner [3,4,6] | ||
| 13 | Abraham Gotthelf Kaestner | Degree | Doctorate [5] (Ph.D. [6]) ** |
| Institution | Universität Leipzig [4,5,6] | ||
| Date | 1739 [4,5,6] | ||
| Title | |||
| Advisor | Christian August Hausen [4] | ||
| 14 | Christian August Hausen | Degree | Doctorate [5] *** |
| Institution | Wittenberg Academy [4,5] | ||
| Date | 1713 [4,5] | ||
| Title | Animaduerfa quaedam in demonftrationem Exiftentiae Dei [4] | ||
| Advisor | Rudolph Jakob Camerarius | ||
| 15 | Rudolph Jakob Camerarius | Degree | |
| Institution | |||
| Date | |||
| Title | |||
| Biography |
Notes
*[6] gives M. Minsky's Advisor as John Wilder Tukey (Ph.D. Mathematics, Princeton, 1939, "On Denumerability in Topology"). Correction: Tukey was also a student of Lefschetz. Tucker, in an interview [8], states that he was Minsky's advisor, and that Tukey also read his dissertation.
**[7] shows a degree of L.L.M. under Hausen in 1737, same university.
***[7] shows an M.S. at Wittenberg in 1712, advisor not known.
Sources
[2] The SIGACT Theory of Computation Genealogy
The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
[5] Research by A. M. Jacobi
[6] The Mathematics Genealogy Project, at Minnesota State University
[7] Chemical Genealogy Database
[8] The Princeton Mathematics Community in the 1930s: An Oral-History Project
[9] from Ben Kuipers:
-
"With a previous version, I had written: 'At one point, I was very
excited to think that Gauss was one of my direct academic ancestors,
but alas updated information suggests that he is only my ninth
cousin, seven times removed, with common ancestor Abraham Kästner. A
lot of Minsky's descendents still have the Gauss ancestry listed. If
MGP changes their mind, I'll happily change it back.'
So they did, and I have."