Max Mason

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Charles Max Mason (October 26, 1877, Madison, Wisconsin – March 23, 1961, Claremont, California) was an American mathematician. Mason president of the University of Chicago (1925–1929) and president of the Rockefeller Foundation (1929–1936).

Mason's mathematical research interests included differential equations, the calculus of variations, and electromagnetic theory.

[edit] Education

• B.Litt. , 1898.
• Ph.D., Mathematics, University of Göttingen, 1903.
  • Dissertation: "Randwertaufgaben bei gewöhnlichen Differentialgleichungen" (Boundary value functions with ordinary differential equations
  • Advisor: Hilbert

[edit] Career

• Massachusetts Institute of Technololgy (MIT), 1903–1904, Instructor of Mathematics.
• Yale University, 1904–1908, Assistant Professor of Mathematics.
• University of Wisconsin, 1908–1909, University of Wisconsin, Associate Professor of Mathematics,
• University of Wisconsin, 1909–1925, Professor of Physics.
  • National Research Council, 1917–1919, Submarine Committee. (Invented a submarine detection device, which was the basis for sonar detectors used in WW2.)
• University of Chicago, 1925–1928, President.
• Rockefeller Foundation, 1928–1929, Director, Natural Sciences Division.
• Rockefeller Foundation, 1929–1936 , President.
• Palomar Observatory (California), 1936–1949, Chairman of the team directing the construction of the observatory.

[edit] External links

• Mathematicians: Charles Max Mason from the School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
• Max Mason from the University of Chicago

Preceded by Ernest DeWitt Burton

President of the University of Chicago 1925—1928

Succeeded by Robert Maynard Hutchins