(to appear in 2008 in the Notices of the AMS)
Alex Rosenberg died October 27, 2007 in Schwerte, Germany, his home
for the last decade. He was born in Berlin, Germany, December 5,
1926. His family fled Germany in August 1939, first to Les-Plans-Sur-
Bex, Switzerland, where they stayed for almost a year. After a brief
stay in England, the family resettled in Ontario.
Alex studied at the University of Toronto. He earned a BA (Math/
Physics) in 1948, and stayed on for an MA in 1949. Moving to the
University of Chicago for his further graduate study, Rosenberg
obtained his PhD 1951, under the supervision of Irving Kaplansky.
In 1961, he joined the faculty at Cornell University as professor of
mathematics, and remained there for a quarter of a century. He was
Chairman of the Department from 1966-69, when it was at its largest.
Later, in 1986, he moved to UC, Santa Barbara as Chair of the
Department of Mathematics. A few years after his retirement in 1994,
he moved back to Germany where he lived until his death.
Rosenberg made fundamental contributions to algebra by applying newly
developed homological techniques to Galois theory and quadratic forms
as well as to other areas. He was also an active member of the
mathematical community holding many important posts in both the AMS
and MAA leadership, including serving as editor of the Proceedings of
the AMS (1960-65).
Alex Rosenberg, whose occasionally gruff manner masked his wit,
kindness, and generosity, was a major figure in the post WWII US
mathematical community whose wise counsel was crucial to mathematics
in the US.
Colm Mulcahy & Lance Small
(This is http://www.spelman.edu/~colm/alexnotices.html,
click here to return to main page).