Editing Ralph Abraham (mathematician)

{{Short description|American mathematician (1936–2024)}}
{{for|the politician|Ralph Abraham (politician)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Ralph Abraham.jpg
| image_size        = 
| image_upright     = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = Abraham in 2008
| birth_name        = Ralph Herman Abraham
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1936|7|4}}
| birth_place       = [[Burlington, Vermont]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|2024|9|19|1936|7|4}}
| death_place       = [[Santa Cruz, California]], U.S.
| nationality       = American
| fields            = [[Mathematics]]
| workplaces        = [[University of California, Santa Cruz]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Michigan]]
| thesis_title      = Discontinuities in General Relativity
| thesis_url        = https://search.lib.umich.edu/catalog/record/002145032
| thesis_year       = 1960
| doctoral_advisor  = Nathaniel Coburn
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = 
| awards            = 
}}

'''Ralph Herman Abraham''' (July 4, 1936 – September 19, 2024) was an American mathematician. In 1968 he became a member of the faculty of the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]] (UCSC), and later stayed on as a [[professor emeritus]] of mathematics.

== Life and work ==
Abraham earned his [[Bachelor of Engineering|BSE]] (1956), [[Master of Science|MS]] (1958), and [[PhD]] (1960) from the [[University of Michigan]]. His PhD thesis, titled ''Discontinuities in General Relativity'', was written under the direction of Nathaniel Coburn.<ref>{{MathGenealogy |id=5051}}</ref> Prior to joining UCSC, he held positions at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] (research lecturer in mathematics; 1960&ndash;1962), [[Columbia University]] (postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor of mathematics; 1962&ndash;1964) and [[Princeton University]] (assistant professor of mathematics; 1964&ndash;1968). He has also held visiting positions in [[Amsterdam]], [[Paris]], [[Warwick]], [[Barcelona]], [[Basel]], and [[Florence]].

He founded the Visual Math Institute at UCSC<ref>{{cite news |last=Baine |first=Wallace |date=July 15, 2016 |title=Santa Cruz County Stories: UCSC's Ralph Abraham keeps alive the memories of Santa Cruz's hip golden era in 1975 |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |url=https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2016/07/15/santa-cruz-county-stories-ucscs-ralph-abraham-keeps-alive-the-memories-of-santa-cruzs-hip-golden-era/ |access-date=2024-06-19}}</ref> in 1975; at that time, it was called the "Visual Mathematics Project".{{cn|date=June 2024}} He was editor of ''World Futures'' and for the ''International Journal of Bifurcations and Chaos''. Abraham was a member of cultural historian [[William Irwin Thompson]]'s [[Lindisfarne Association]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Abraham has been involved in the development of [[dynamical systems theory]] since the 1960s and 1970s. He has been a consultant on [[chaos theory]] and its applications in numerous fields, such as medical physiology, ecology, mathematical economics, and psychotherapy.<ref>[http://www.isss.org/conferences/sonoma2006/2006_ISSS_50thAnnualMeeting_Sonoma_Program-Body-Acrobat6-150dpi.pdf Complexity, Democracy and Sustainability] The 50th Anniversary Meeting of The International Society for the Systems Sciences. [[Sonoma State University]], 2006. Retrieved 7 June 2008.</ref>

Another interest of Abraham's concerns alternative ways of expressing mathematics, for example visually or aurally. He has staged performances in which mathematics, visual arts and [[music]] are combined into one presentation. Abraham developed an interest in "Hip" activities in Santa Cruz in the 1960s and had a website gathering information on the topic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ralph-abraham.org/1960s/|title=Santa Cruz 1960s|website=www.ralph-abraham.org}}</ref> He credited his use of the [[psychedelic drug]] [[Dimethyltryptamine|DMT]] with "swerv[ing his] career toward a search for the connections between mathematics and the experience of the Logos".<ref name="SheldrakeMcKenna2013">{{cite book|last1=Sheldrake|first1=Rupert|last2=McKenna|first2=Terence|last3=Abraham|first3=Ralph|title=The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination & Spirit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iIPHtyQHpTIC&pg=PT63|access-date=12 April 2014|date=2013-08-20|publisher=Monkfish Book Publishing|isbn=9781939681102|pages=63–}}</ref>

Abraham died at his home in Santa Cruz County, at the age of 88.<ref>{{cite news |last=Baine |first=Wallace |date=October 6, 2024 |title=From math to mushrooms, intellectual explorer Ralph Abraham was always looking for the Big Picture |newspaper=Lookout Santa Cruz |url=https://lookout.co/ralph-abraham-chaos-theory-counterculture-uc-santa-cruz-from-math-to-mushrooms-intellectual-explorer-was-always-looking-for-the-big-picture/ |access-date=2024-10-06}}</ref>

== Works==
;Publications
* 1987. [https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/2y9mc-bgv54 ''Foundations of Mechanics''], 2nd edn. With [[Jerrold E. Marsden]];<ref>{{cite journal|author=Sternberg, Shlomo|author-link=Shlomo Sternberg|title=Review: ''Foundations of mechanics'', 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, by Ralph Abraham and Jerrold E. Marsden|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society |series=New Series|year=1980|volume=2|issue=2|pages=378–387|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1980-02-02/S0273-0979-1980-14771-0/S0273-0979-1980-14771-0.pdf|doi=10.1090/S0273-0979-1980-14771-0|doi-access=free}}</ref> 1st edition 1967
* 1988. ''[https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-1029-0 Manifolds, Tensor Analysis, and Applications]'', 2nd edn. With Jerrold E. Marsden and [[Tudor Ratiu]]. {{doi|10.1007/978-1-4612-1029-0}}
* 1992. ''Dynamics, the Geometry of Behavior'', 2nd edn. With [[Robert Shaw (physicist)#Illustrations|C. D. Shaw]]
* 1992. ''Trialogues on the Edge of the West''. With [[Terence McKenna]] and [[Rupert Sheldrake]]
* 1992. ''Chaos, Gaia, Eros''
* 1995. ''The Web Empowerment Book''. With Frank Jas and Will Russell
* 1995. ''Chaos in Discrete Dynamical Systems''. With [[Laura Gardini]] and Christian Mira.<ref>companion CD-ROM by Ronald Joe Record and Ralph Abraham</ref>
* 1997. ''The Evolutionary Mind''. With Terence McKenna and Rupert Sheldrake
* 2000. ''The Chaos Avant-garde''. With Yoshisuke Ueda
* 2011. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=D2KquAAACAAJ Bolts From the Blue]''
* 2016. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TSqKDAEACAAJ ''Hip Santa Cruz, Vol. 1.'']
;Film
* 1989. ''The Strange New Science of Chaos'', as himself
* 2009. [http://cognitionfactor.net/cognition-factor/the-cast/RalphAbraham.html ''Cognition Factor 2009''], as himself
* 2010. ''[[DMT: The Spirit Molecule]]'', as himself<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340425/fullcredits#cast |title=Full cast and crew |work=DMT: The Spirit Molecule |publisher=IMDb |year=2010}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.ralph-abraham.org/ Personal website] Ralph Abraham.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Ralph}}
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:2024 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Burlington, Vermont]]
[[Category:Mathematicians from Vermont]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:Complex systems scientists]]
[[Category:Chaos theorists]]
[[Category:University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni]]
[[Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty]]
[[Category:Princeton University faculty]]