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Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51 (1980)

Chapter: Abraham Adrian Albert

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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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Suggested Citation:"Abraham Adrian Albert." National Academy of Sciences. 1980. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 51. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/574.
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ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT November 9' Z905-june 6, 1972 BY IRVING KAPLANSKY ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT was an outstanding figure in the world of twentieth century algebra, and at the same time a statesman and leader in the American mathematical community. He was born in Chicago on November 9, 1905, the son of immigrant parents. His father, Elias Albert, had come to the United States from Englanc! and hacl established himself as a retail merchant. His mother, Fannie Fradkin Albert, hac! come from Russia. Adrian Albert was the second of three chilclren, the others being a boy and a girl; in addi- tion, he had a half-brother ant! a half-sister on his mother's side. Albert attended elementary schools in Chicago from ~ 91 ~ to 1914. From 1914 to 1916 the family lived in Iron Moun- tain, Michigan, where he continued his schooling. Back in Chicago, he attendee! Theodore Herz} Elementary School, graduating in 1919, and the John Marshall High School, graduating in 1922. In the fall of 1922 he entered the Uni- versity of Chicago, the institution with which he was to be associated for virtually the rest of his life. He was awarded the Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philos- ophy in three successive years: 1926, 1927, and 1928. On December IS, 1927, while completing his dissertation, he married Frieda Davis. Theirs was a happy marriage, and 3

4 B I OGRAPH I CAL M E M OI RS she was a stalwart help to him throughout his career. She remains active in the University of Chicago community and in the life of its Department of Mathematics. They had three children: Alan, Roy, and Nancy. Tragically, Roy died in 1958 at the early age of twenty-three. There are five grancI- children. Leonard Eugene Dickson was at the time the dominant American mathematician in the fielcis of algebra and number theory. He had been on the Chicago faculty since almost its earliest days. He was a remarkably energetic and forceful man (as ~ can personally testify, having been a student in his number theory course years later). His influence on Albert was considerable ant] set the course for much of his subse- quent research. Dickson's important book, Algebras and Their Arithmetics (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1923), had recently ap- peared in an expanded German translation (Zurich: Orell Fussli, 1927~. The subject of algebras had acivanced to the center of the stage. It continues to this day to play a vital role in many branches of mathematics and in other sciences as well. An algebra is an abstract mathematical entity with ele- ments and operations fulfilling the familiar laws of algebra, with one important qualification the commutative law of multiplication is waived. (More carefully, ~ should have said that this is an associative algebra; non-associative algebras will play an important role later in this memoir.) Early in the twentieth century, fundamental results of J. H. M. Wedder- burn had clarified the nature of algebras up to the cIassifica- tion of the ultimate building blocks, the division algebras. Advances were now needecl on two fronts. One wanted theorems valid over any field (every algebra has an underly- ing field of coefficients—a number system of which the lead- ing examples are the real numbers, the rational numbers,

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBER r 5 and the integers mod p). On the other front, one sought to classify division algebras over the field! of rational numbers. Albert at once became extraordinarily active on both bat- tIefields. His first major publication was an improvement of the second half of his Ph.D. thesis; it appeared in ~ 929 under the title "A Determination of All Normal Division Algebras in Sixteen Units." The hallmarks of his mathematical personal- ity were already visible. Here was a tough problem that had defeated his predecessors; he attacked it with tenacity till it yielded. One can imagine how delighted Dickson must have been. This work won Albert a prestigious postdoctoral Na- tional Research Council Fellowship; which he used in 1928 and 1929 at Princeton and Chicago. ~ shall briefly explain the nature of Albert's accomplish- ment. The dimension of a division algebra over its center is necessarily a square, say n2. The case n = 2 is easy. A good deal harder is the case n = 3, handled by Wedderburn. Now Albert cracked the still harder case, n = 4. One indication of the magnitude of the result is the fact that at this writing, nearly fifty years later, the next case in = 5) remains myste- rious. In the hunt for rational division algebras, Albert had stiff competition. Three top German algebraists (Richard Brauer, Helmut Hasse, and Emmy Noether) were after the same big game. Just a little later the advent of the Nazis brought two-thirds of this stellar team to the United States.) It was an unequal battle, and Albert was nosed out in a photo finish. In a joint paper with Hasse published in ~932 the full history of the matter was set out, and one can see how close Albert came · — to winning. Let me return to 192~1929, his first postdoctoral year. At Princeton University a fortunate contact took place. Solo- mon Lefschetz noted the presence of this promising youngster, and encouraged him to take a look at Riemann

6 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS matrices. These are matrices that arise in the theory of com- plex manifolds; the main problems concerning them had remained unsolved for more than half a century. The project was perfect for Albert, for it connected closely with the theory of algebras he was so successfully developing. A series of papers ensued, culminating in complete solutions of the outstanding problems concerning Riemann matrices. For this work he received the American Mathematical Society's 1939 Cole prize in algebra. From 1929 to 1931 he was an instructor at Columbia University. Then the young couple, accompanied by a baby boy less than a year old, happily returned to the University of Chicago. He rose steadily through the ranks: assistant pro- fessor in 1 93 I, associate professor in 1 937, professor in 1 94 l, chairman of the Department of Mathematics from 1958 to ~ 962, and dean of the Division of Physical Sciences from ~ 962 to 1971. In 1960 he received a Distinguished Service Profes- sorship, the highest honor that the University of Chicago can confer on a faculty member; appropriately it bore the name of E. H. Moore, chairman of the Department from its first day until 1927. The decade of the ~ 930's saw a creative outburst. Approx- imately sixty papers flowed from his pen. They covered a wide range of topics in algebra and the theory of numbers beyond those ~ have mentioned. Somehow, he also found the time to write two important books. Modern Higher Algebra (1937) was a wiclely used textbook but it is more than a textbook. It remains in print to this day, and on certain sub- jects it is an indispensable reference. Structure of Algebras (19393 was his definitive treatise on algebras and formed the basis for his 1939 Colloquium Lectures to the American Mathematical Society. There have been later books on aige- bras, but none has replacecl Structure of Algebras. The academic year 1933-1934 was again spent in Prince-

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT 7 ton, this time at the newly founded Institute for Advanced Study. Again, there were fruitful contacts with other mathe- maticians. Albert has recorded that he found Hermann Wey1's lectures on Lie algebras stimulating. Another thing that happened was that Albert was introduced to Jordan algebras. The physicist Pascual Jordan had suggested that a certain kind of algebra, inspired by using the operation xy +yx in an associative algebra, might be useful in quantum mechanics. He enlisted von Neumann and Wigner in the enterprise, and in a joint paper they investigated the structure in question. But a crucial point was left unresolved; Albert supplied the missing theorem. The paper appeared in 1934 and was en- titied "On a Certain Algebra of Quantum Mechanics." A seed had been planted that Albert was to harvest a decade later. Let me jump ahead chronologically to finish the story of Jordan algebras. I can add a personal recollection. I arrived in Chicago in early October 1945. Perhaps on my very first day, perhaps a few days later, I was in Albert's office discuss- ing some routine matter. His student Daniel Zelinsky en- tered. A torrent of words poured out, as Albert told him how he had just cracked the theory of special Jordan algebras. His enthusiasm was delightful and contagious. I got into the act and we had a spirited discussion. It resulted in arousing in me an enduring interest in Jordan algebras. About a year later, in 1946, his paper appeared. It was followed by "A Structure Theory for Jordan Algebras" (1947) and "A Theory of Power-Associative Commutative Algebras" (19501. These three papers created a whole sub- ject; it was an achievement comparable to his study of Rie- mann matrices. World War II brought changes to the Chicago campus. The Manhattan Project took over Eckhart Hall, the mathe- matics building (the self-sustaining chain reaction of De-

8 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS cember 1942 took place a block away). Scientists in all (lisci- plines, including mathematics, answered the call to sect the war effort against the Axis. A number of mathematicians assembled in an Applied Mathematics Group at Northwest- ern University, where Albert served as associate director clur- ing 1944 and 1945. At that time, ~ was a member of a similar group at Columbia, and our first scientific interchange took place. It concerned a mathematical question arising in aerial photography; he gently guicled me over the pitfalls I was encountering. Albert became interested in cryptography. On November 22, 1941, he gave an invited aciciress at a meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Manhattan, Kansas, en- titIe(1 "Some Mathematical Aspects of Cryptography." * After the war he continued to be active in the fields in which he hac! become an expert. In 1942 he publisher! a paper entitled "Non-Associative Algebras." The date of receipt was January 5, 1942, but he had already presented it to the American Mathematical Society on September 5, 1941, and he hac] lectured on the subject at Princeton and Harvarc! during March of 1941. It seems fair to name one of these presentations the birth date of the American school of non-associative algebras, which he singlehandedly founded. He was active in it himself for a quarter of a century, and the school continues to flourish. Albert investigate<] just about every aspect of non- associative algebras. At times a particular line of attack failed to fulfill the promise it had shown; he would then exercise his sound instinct ant! good judgment by shifting the assault to a different area. In fact, he repeatedly displayect an uncanny knack for selecting projects which later turned out to be well conceived, as the following three cases illustrate. * The twenty-nine-page manuscript of this talk was not published, but Chicago's Department of Mathematics has preserved a copy.

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBER r 9 (1) In the 1942 paper he introduced the new concept of isotopy. Much later it was found to be exactly what was needed in studying collineations of projective planes. (2) In a sequence of papers that began in 1952 with "On Non-Associative Division Algebras," he invented and studied tw~ste~fie~. At the time, one might have thought that this was merely an addition to the list of known non-associative divi- sion algebras, a list that was already large. Just a few days before this paragraph was written, Giampaolo Menichetti published a proof that every three-dimensional division aIge- bra over a finite field is either associative or a twisted field, showing conclusively that Albert had hit on a key concept. (3) In a paper that appeared in 1953, Erwin Kleinfeld classified all simple alternative rings. Vital use was made of two of Albert's papers: "Absolute-Valued Algebraic AIge- bras" (1949) and "On Simple Alternative Rings" (19521. T remember hearing Kleinfeld exclaim "It's amazing! He proved exactly the right things." The postwar years were busy ones for the Alberts. Just the job to be done at the University would have absorbed all the energies of a lesser man. Marshall Harvey Stone was lured from Harvard in 1946 to assume the chairmanship of the Mathematics Department. Soon Eckhart Hall was humming, as such world famous mathematicians as Shiing-Shen Chern, Saunders Mac Lane, Andre Weil, and Antoni Zygmund joined Albert and Stone to make Chicago an exciting center. Albert taught courses at all levels, directed his stream of Ph.D.'s (see the list at the end of this memoir), maintained his own program of research, and helped to guide the Depart- ment and the University at large in making wise decisions. Eventually, in 1958, he accepted the challenge of the chair- manship. The main stamp he left on the Department was a project dear to his heart: maintaining a lively flow of visitors and research instructors, for whom he skilIfully got support

10 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS in the form of research grants. The University cooperated by making an apartment building available to house the visitors. Affectionately called "the compound," the mociest building has been the birthplace of many a fine theorem. [:specially memorable was the academic year 196~196l, when Walter Feit and John Thompson, visiting for the entire year, made their big breakthrough in finite group theory lay proving that all groups of odd order are solvable. Early in his seconc! three-year term as chairman, Albert was asked to assume the clemanding post of dean of the Division of Physical Sciences. He accepted, and served for nine years. The new dean was able to keep his mathematics going. In 1965 he returnee! to his first love: associative divi- sion algebras. His retiring presidential address to the Ameri- can Mathematical Society, "On Associative Division AIge- bras," presenter! the state of the art as of 1968. Requests for his services from outside the University were widespread! and frequent. A full tabulation would be icing indeecl. Here is a partial list: consultant, Rand Corporation; consultant, National Security Agency; trustee, Institute for Advanced Study; trustee, Institute for Defense Analyses, 196~1972, anct director of its Communications Research Division, ~ 96 I-l 962; chairman, Division of Mathematics of the National Research Council, 1952-1955; chairman, Mathematics Section of the National Academy of Sciences, 195~1961; chairman, Survey of Training and Research Potential in the Mathematical Sciences, 195~1957 (widely known as the "Albert Survey"; president, American Mathe- matical Society, 1965-1966; participant and then director of Project SCAMP at the University of California at Los Angeles; director, Project ALP (nicknamed "Adrian's little project"; director, Summer 1957 Mathematical Conference at Bow- cloin College, a project of the Air Force Cambridge Research Center; vice-president, International Mathematical Union; ant] delegate, IMU Moscow Symposium, 1971, honoring

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT 1 1 Vinogradov's eightieth birthday (this was the last major meet- ing he attended). Albert's election to the National Academy of Sciences came in 1943, when he was thirty-seven. Other honors fol- lowed. Honorary degrees were awarded by Notre Dame in ~ 965, by Yeshiva University in ~ 96S, and by the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus in 1971. He was elected to membership in the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (1952) and the Argentine Academy of Sciences (1963~. In the fall of 1971, he was welcomed back to the third floor of [:ckhart Hall (the dean's office was on the first floor). He resumed the role of a faculty member with a zest that suggested that it was ~ 93 ~ all over again. But as the academic year 1971-1972 wore on, his colleagues and friends were saddened to see that his health was failing. Death came on June 6, 1972. A paper published posthumously in 1972 was a fitting coda to a life unselfishly devoted to the welfare of mathematics and mathematicians. In 1976 the Department of Mathematics inaugurated an annual event entitled the Adrian Albert Memorial Lectures. The first lecturer was his long-i'me colleague Professor Nathan Jacobson of Yale University. MRS. FRIEDA ALBERT was generous in her advice concerning the preparation of this memoir. I was also fortunate to have available three previous biographical accounts. "Abraham Adrian Albert, 190~1972," by Nathan Jacobson (Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 80: 1075-1100), presented a detailed technical appraisal of Albert's mathematics, in addition to a biography and a comprehensive bib- liography. I also wish to thank Daniel Zelinsky, author of "A. A. Albert" (Am. Math. Mon., 80:661-65), and the contributors to vol- ume 29 of Scripta Mathematica, originally planned as a collection of papers honoring Adrian Albert on his sixty-fifth birthday. By the time it appeared in 1973, the editors had the sad task of changing it into a memorial volume; the three-page biographical sketch was written by I. N. Herstein.

12 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS PH.D. STUDENTS OF A. A. ALBERT 1934 ANTOINETTE KILLEN: The integral bases of all quartic fields with a group of order eight. OSWALD SAGEN: The integers represented by sets of posi- tive ternary quadratic non-classic forms. 1936 DANIEL DRIBIN: Representation of binary forms by sets of ternary forms. 1937 HARRIET REES: Ideals in cubic and certain quartic fields. 1938 FANNIE BOYCE: Certain types of nilpotent algebras. SAM PERLIS: Maximal orders in rational cyclic algebras of composite degree. LEONARD TORNHEIM: over a function field. 1940 ALBERT NEUHAUS: Products of normal semi-fields. 1941 FRANK MARTIN: Integral domains in quartic fields. Integral sets of quaternion algebras FRANK MARTIN: _ ANATOL RAPOPORT: Construction of non-Abelian fields with prescribed arithmetic. 1942 GERHARD KALISCH: RICHARD SCHAFER: field. 1943 ROY DUBISCH: Composition of quadratic forms. 1946 DANIEL ZELINSKY: bras. 1950 NATHAN DIVINSKY: sion algebras. CHARLES PRICE: Jordan division algebras and their arith- met~cs. On special Jordan algebras. Alternative algebras over an arbitrary Integral sets of quasiquaternion alge- 1 1 Power associativity and crossed exten- 1951 MURRAY GERSTENHABER: Rings of derivations. DAVID MERRIEL: On almost alternative flexible algebras. LOUIS WEINER: Lie admissible algebras. 1952 LOUIS KOKORIS: bras. JOHN MOORE: Primary central division algebras. A class of non-commutative Dower- New results on power-associative alge- . . 1954 ROBERT OEHMKE: associative algebras. EUGENE PAIGE: Jordan algebras of characteristic two.

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT 1956 RICHARD BLOCK: New simple Lie algebras of prime char- acteristic. 1957 JAMES OSBORN: Commutative diassociative loops. 1959 LAURENCE HARPER: Some properties of partially stable al- gebras. 1961 REUBEN SANDIER: associative algebras. PETER STANEK: Two element generation of the symplectic group. 1964 ROBERT BROWN: Lie algebras of types E6 and E;. Autotopism groups of some finite non- 13

14 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS BIBLIOGRAPHY 1928 Normal division algebras satisfying mild assumptions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 14:904-6. The group of the rank equation of any normal division algebra. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 14:90~7. 1929 A determination of all normal divisor algebras in sixteen units. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 31:253-60. On the rank equation of any normal division algebra. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 35:335-38. The rank function of any simple algebra. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 15 :372-76. On the structure of normal division algebras. Ann. Math., 30:322-38. Normal division algebras in 4p2 units, p an odd prime. Ann. Math. 30:583-90. The structure of any algebra which is a direct product of rational generalized quaternion division algebras. Ann. Math., 30: 621-25. 1930 On the structure of pure Riemann matrices with non-commutative multiplication algebras. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 16:308-12. On direct products, cyclic division algebras, and pure Riemann matrices. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 16:313-15. The non-existence of pure Riemann matrices with normal multipli- cation algebras of order sixteen. Ann. Math., 31 :375-80. A necessary and sufficient condition for the non-equivalence of any two rational generalized quaternion division algebras. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 36:535-40. Determination of all normal division algebras in thirty-six units of type R2. Am. J. Math., 52:283-92. A note on an important theorem on normal division algebras. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 36:649~50. New results in the theory of normal division algebras. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 32: 171-95. The integers of normal quartic fields. Ann. Math., 31:381~18.

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT 15 A determination of the integers of all cubic fields. Ann. Math. 31:55~66. A construction of all non-commutative rational division algebras of order eight. Ann. Math., 31 :567-76. 1931 Normal division algebras of order 22 . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 17:38~92. The structure of pure Riemann matrices with noncommutative multiplication algebras. Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo, 55:57-115. On direct products, cyclic division algebras, and pure Riemann matrices. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 33:21~34; correction, 999. On normal division algebras of type R in thirty-six.units. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 33:235-43. On direct products. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 33:69(~711. On the Wedderburn norm condition for cyclic algebras. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 37:301-12. A note on cyclic algebras of order sixteen. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 37:727-30. Division algebras over an algebraic field. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 37:777-84. The structure of matrices with any normal division algebra of mul- tiplications. Ann. Math., 32:131-48. 1932 On the construction of cyclic algebras with a given exponent. Am. J. Math., 54:1-13. Algebras of degree he and pure Riemann matrices. Ann. Math., 33:311-18. A construction of non-cyclic normal division algebras. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 38:44~56. A note on normal division algebras of order sixteen. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 38 :703-6. Normal division algebras of degree four over an algebraic field. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 34:363-72. On normal simple algebras. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 34:62~25. With H. Hasse. A determination of all normal division algebras over an algebraic number field. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 34:722-26.

16 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1933 A note on the equivalence of algebras of degree two. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 39:257-58. On primary normal divisor algebras of degree eight. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 39:26~72. A note on the Dickson theorem on universal ternaries. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 39 :585~8. Normal division algebras over algebraic number fields not of finite degree. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 39:746-49. Non-cyclic algebras of degree and exponent four. Trans. Am. Math.Soc.,35:112-21. Cyclic fields of degree eight. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 35:949 64. The integers represented by sets of ternary quadratic forms. Am. J. Math., 55:274-92. On universal sets of positive ternary quadratic forms. Ann. Math., 34:875-78. 1934 On the construction of Riemann matrices. I. Ann. Math.,35: 1-28. On a certain algebra of quantum mechanics. Ann. Math., 35 :65-73. On certain imprimitive fields of degree p2 over P of characteristic p.Ann.Math.,35:211-19. A solution of the principal problem in the theory of Riemann ma- trices. Ann. Math., 35:50(~15. Normal division algebras of degree 4 overF of characteristic 2. Am. I. Math., 56:7~86. Integral domains of rational generalized quaternion algebras. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 40:164-76. Cyclic fields of degree On over F of characteristicp. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 40:625-31. The principal matrices of a Riemann matrix. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 40:843~6. Normal division algebras over a modular field. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 36:388-94. On normal Kummer fields over a non-modular field. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 36:885-92. Involutorial simple algebras and real Riemann matrices. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 20 :676~ 1.

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBER r 1935 17 A note on the Poincare theorem on impure Riemann matrices. Ann. Math., 36: 151-56. On the construction of Riemann matrices. II. Ann. Math.. 36:37~94. Involutorial simple algebras and real Riemann matrices. Ann. Math., 36:886-964. On cyclic fields. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 37:454-62. 1936 Normal division algebras of degree pe over F of characteristic p. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 39: 183-88. Simple algebras of degree pe over a centrum of characteristic p. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 40: 112-26. 1937 Modern Higher A Igebra. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. 313 pp. A note on matrices defining total real fields. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 43 :242-44. p-Algebras over a field generated by one indeterminate. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 43:733-36. Normalized integral bases of algebraic number fields. I. Ann. Math., 38:923-57. 1938 A quadratic form problem in the calculus of variations. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 44:250-53. Non-cyclic algebras with pure maximal subfields. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 44:57~79. A note on normal division algebras of prime degree. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 44:649-52. Symmetric and alternate matrices in an arbitrary field. I. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 43:386~36. Quadratic and null forms over a function field. Ann. Math., 39: 494-505. On cyclic algebras. Ann. Math., 39:669-82.

18 B I OGRAPH I CAL M E MOI RS 1939 Structure of Algebras. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society Colloquium Publication, vol. 24. 210 pp. (Corrected re- printing, 1961.) 1940 On ordered algebras. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 46:521-22. Onp-adic fields and rational division algebras. Ann. Math., 41: 674-93. 1941 Introduction to Algebraic Theories. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. 137 pp. A rule for computing the inverse of a matrix. Am. Math. Mon.,48: 198-99. Division algebras over a function field. Duke Math. I., 8:750-62. 1942 Quadratic forms permitting composition. Ann. Math., 43: 161-77. Non-associative algebras. I. Fundamental concepts and isotopy. Ann. Math., 43:685-707. Non-associative algebras. II. New simple algebras. Ann. Math., 43 :708-23. The radical of a non-associative algebra. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 48: 891-97. 1943 An inductive proof of Descartes' rule of signs. Am. Math. Mon., 50: 178~0. A suggestion for a simplified trigonometry. Am. Math. Mon., 50: 251-53. Quasigroups. I. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 54:507-19. 1944 Algebras derived by non-associative matrix multiplication. Am. I. Math., 66:30-40. The matrices of factor analysis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 30: 90-95.

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT 19 The minimum rank of a correlation matrix. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 30:144 16. Quasigroups. II. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 55:401-19. Two element generation of a separable algebra. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 50:786~8. Quasiquaternion algebras. Ann. Math., 45:623-38. 1946 College Algebra. N.Y.: McGraw-Hill. 278 pp. (Reprinted, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1963.) On Jordan algebras of linear transformations. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 59:524-55. 1947 The Wedderburn principal theorem for. Jordan algebras. Ann. Math., 48:1-7. Absolute valued real algebras. Ann. Math., 48:495-501; correction in Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 55~1949~:1191. A structure theory for Jordan algebras. Ann. Math., 48:54~67. 1948 On the power-associativity of rings. Summa Bras. Math., 2:21-33. Power-associative rings. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 64:552-93. 1949 Solid Analytic Geometry. N.Y.: McGraw-Hill. 1 58 pp. (Reprinted, Chi- cago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1966.) On right alternative algebras. Ann. Math., 50:318-28. Absolute-valued algebraic algebras. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 55: 763-68. A theory of trace-admissible algebras. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 35:317-22. Almost alternative algebras. Port. Math., 8:23-36. 1950 A note on the exceptional Jordan algebra. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 36:372-74. A theory of power-associative commutative algebras. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 69:503-27.

20 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1951 New simple power-associative algebras. Summa Bras. Math., 2: 183-94. 1952 Power-associative algebras. In: Proceedings of the International Con- gress of Mathematics at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1950, vol. 2, pp. 25-32. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society. On non-associative division algebras. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 72: 296-309. On simple alternative rings. Can. Math. J., 4:12~35. 1953 On commutative power-associative algebras of degree two. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 74:323~3. Rational normal matrices satisfying the incidence equation. Proc. Am. Math. Soc., 4:554-59. 1954 The structure of right alternative algebras. Ann. Math., 59:408-17. With M. S. Frank. Simple Lie algebras of characteristic p. Univ. Politec. Torino, Rend. Sem. Mat., 14: 117-39. 1955 Leonard Eugene Dickson, 1874-1954. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 61:331~5. On involutorial algebras. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 41:48(~82. On Hermitian operators over the Cayley algebra. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.USA,41:639 40. 1956 A property of special Jordan algebras. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 42:624-25. 1957 The norm form of a rational division algebra. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 43:506-9. On certain trinomial equations in finite fields. Ann. Math 66:17~78.

ABRAHAM ADRIAN ALBERT 2 With B. Muckenhoupt. On matrices of trace zero. Mich. Math. I., 4:1-3. On partially stable algebras. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 84:430~3. With N. Jacobson. On reduced exceptional simple Jordan algebras. Ann. Math., 66:400-17. A property of ordered rings. Proc. Am. Math. SQC., 8:128-29. 1958 Fundamental Concepts of Higher Algebra. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. 165 pp. With John Thompson. Two element generation of the projective unimodular group. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 64:92-93. Addendum to the paper on partially stable algebras. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 87:57-62. A construction of exceptional3Ordan division algebras. Ann. Math.. 67: 1-28. To On the orthogonal equivalence of sets of real symmetric matrices. I. Math. Mech., 7:21~35. Finite noncommutative division algebras. Proc. Am. Math. Soc., 9:928-32. On the collineation groups associated with twisted fields. In: Golden Jubilee Commemoration Volume of the Calcutta Mathematical Society, part II, pp. 485-97. 1959 On the collineation groups of certain non-desarguesian planes. Port. Math., 18 :207-24. A solvable exceptional Jordan algebra. l. Math. Mech., 8:331-37. With L. l. Paige. On a homomorphism property of certain Jordan algebras. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 93:2(~29. With John Thompson. Two-element generation of the projective unimodular group. Ill. J. Math., 3 :421-39. 1960 Finite division algebras and finite planes. In: Proceedings of a Sympo- sium on Applied Mathematics, vol. 10, pp.53-70. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society. 1961 Generalized twisted fields. Pac. J. Math., 11: 1~.

22 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Isotopy for generalized twisted fields. An. Acad. Bras. Cienc. 33 :265-75. 1962 Finite planes for the high school. The Mathematics Teacher, 55: 165-69. 1963 On involutorial associative division algebras. Scr. Math.,26:309-16. On the nuclei of a simple Jordan algebra. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 50:446~7. 1965 A normal form for Riemann matrices, Can. J. Math., 17:102~29. On exceptional Jordan division algebras. Pac. I. Math., 15:377~04. On associative division algebras of prime degree. Proc. Am. Math. Soc., 16:799~02. 1966 The finite planes of Ostrom. Boll Soc. Mat. Mex., 11:1-13. On some properties of biabelian fields. An. Acad. Bras. Cienc., 38:217-21. 1967 New results on associative division algebras. J. Algebra, 5:11~32. On certain polynomial systems, Scr. Math., 28:1~19. 1968 With Reuben Sandler. An Introduction to Finite Projective Planes. N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 98 pp. On associative division algebras. (Retiring presidential address.) Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 74:43~54. 1970 A note on certain cyclic algebras. J. Algebra, 14:7~72. 1972 Tensor products of quaternion algebras. Proc. Am. Math. Soc., 35:65-66.

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Biographic Memoirs: Volume 51 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works. Each biographical essay was written by a member of the Academy familiar with the professional career of the deceased. For historical and bibliographical purposes, these volumes are worth returning to time and again.

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