Memories of Max Schiffer

Abstract

I first met Max Schiffer in the summer of 1968, when I arrived at Stanford. I was a fresh Ph.D. from MIT, trained mainly in functional analysis, but with a burgeoning interest in complex function theory. After seven years in New England, California had beckoned like the Garden of Eden; but the decision to go to Stanford was based largely on its exceptional strength in complex analysis. It was immediately apparent that even in so distinguished a department as Stanford’s, Schiffer stood out as someone special. (Today, we would say he was one of the department’s two “superstars”; the other, of course, was Paul Cohen.) In addition to Max’s exceptional intellectual power, there was a great breadth and depth of learning to back it up. His very extensive knowledge of classical mathematics (including algebra, which he had studied under Schur) was complemented by a professional competence in physics; and he was extremely widely read in the history and philosophy of science, as well. In this connection, I recall the following incident, which is representative. I had been reading René Thom’s Structural Stability and Morphogenesis, a heady blend of mathematics, biology, and pre-Socratic philosophy; the experience left me in a state of excited confusion. I turned to Max for guidance, lending him the book for the weekend. By the following Monday, he had read it, assimilated it, and was able to give me some excellent advice on how to distinguish the wheat from the chaff.