David P. Robbins

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David P. Robbins (1942, Brooklyn – 2003, Princeton) was an American mathematician. He is most famous for introducing alternating sign matrices and his work on generalized Heron's formula.

Robbins grew up in Manhattan, where he attended the Fieldston School. He studied at Harvard, where his undergraduate advisor was Andrew Gleason. He went to MIT to do his graduate work but never finished his Ph.D. He then taught at the Fieldston School, Phillips Exeter Academy, Hamilton College and Washington and Lee University. In 1980 he moved to Princeton and worked at CCR until his death from pancreatic cancer.

[edit] References

• C. Chan, L. Neuwirth, A. Richter, D. Robbins and D. Lieberman, "David P. Robbins (1942—2003)", Adv. in Appl. Math. 34 (2005), no. 4, 647-653.