Bliss, Gilbert Ames

▪ American mathematician

born May 9, 1876, Chicago

died May 8, 1951, Harvey, Ill.

      U.S. mathematician and educator known for his work on the calculus of variations.

      He received his B.S. degree in 1897 from the University of Chicago (Chicago, University of) and remained to study mathematical astronomy under F.R. Moulton. He received his M.S. degree in 1898 and two years later his doctorate. Bliss immediately went into teaching as an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Minnesota from 1900 to 1902, followed by a two-year assistantship at the University of Chicago, a year at the University of Missouri, and three years (1905–1908) as preceptor at Princeton University—a period in which he also served as an editor of the Annals of Mathematics. In 1908 Bliss returned to the faculty at the University of Chicago as an associate professor; he was named professor five years later. He became department chairman in 1927 and served until his retirement in 1941.

      Bliss applied his knowledge of calculus to the field of ballistics during the latter days of World War I, when he designed an improved set of firing tables for artillery. His book Mathematics for Exterior Ballistics (1944) was based on this work. His research in algebraic functions led to his paper “Algebraic Functions and Their Divisors,” and Bliss expanded on this work in his book Algebraic Functions (1933). Bliss's extensive study of the calculations of extreme values of an integral or function culminated in 1946 in his major work, Lectures on the Calculus of Variations. Bliss served as president of the American Mathematical Society from 1921 to 1922.

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