Martin David Kruskal

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Martin Kruskal
Born	Martin David Kruskal (1925-09-28)September 28, 1925 New York City, New York, US
Died	December 26, 2006(2006-12-26) (aged 81) Princeton, New Jersey, US
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	New York University University of Chicago
Known for	Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates Kruskal–Shafranov instability Bernstein–Greene–Kruskal modes Kruskal–Schwarzchild instability Theory of solitons Kruskal count
Awards	Heineman Prize (1983) National Medal of Science (1993) ForMemRS (1997)[1][2] Steele Prize (2006)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematical physics
Institutions	Rutgers University Princeton University
Doctoral advisor	Richard Courant
Doctoral students	Robert Sinclair MacKay[3] Steven Orszag[3] Nalini Joshi[3]

Martin David Kruskal (/ˈkrʌskəl/; September 28, 1925 – December 26, 2006)^[1] was an American mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions in many areas of mathematics and science, ranging from plasma physics to general relativity and from nonlinear analysis to asymptotic analysis. His most celebrated contribution was in the theory of solitons.^[4]

He was a student at the University of Chicago and at New York University, where he completed his Ph.D. under Richard Courant in 1952. He spent much of his career at Princeton University, as a research scientist at the Plasma Physics Laboratory starting in 1951, and then as a professor of astronomy (1961), founder and chair of the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics (1968), and professor of mathematics (1979). He retired from Princeton University in 1989 and joined the mathematics department of Rutgers University, holding the David Hilbert Chair of Mathematics.

Apart from serious mathematical work, Kruskal was known for mathematical diversions. For example, he invented the Kruskal count, a magical effect that has been known to perplex professional magicians because it was based not on sleight of hand but on a mathematical phenomenon.