Richard Vincent Kadison (July 25, 1925 – August 22, 2018) was an American mathematician known for his contributions to the study of operator algebras.

Career

Born in New York City in 1925, Kadison was a Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor in the Department of Mathematics of the University of Pennsylvania. Kadison was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1996), and a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (elected 1974) and of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He was a 1969 Guggenheim Fellow. Kadison was awarded the 1999 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement by the American Mathematical Society. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Personal life

Kadison was a skilled gymnast with a specialty in rings, making the 1952 US Olympic Team but later withdrawing due to an injury. He married Karen M. Holm on June 5, 1956, and they had one son, Lars. Kadison died after a short illness on August 22, 2018.

Selected publications

Books

PNAS articles