Paul Olum

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Paul Olum

Paul Olum (August 16, 1918-January 19, 2001) was a noted mathematician and university administrator.

1 Early Years
2 Cornell
3 University of Texas
4 University of Oregon
5 External links

[edit] Early Years

Paul Olum was born in Binghamton, New York. His father was a Jewish businessman who had fled Russia at the age of nine to escape persecution. Paul’s fascination with mathematics at an early age grew into excellent performance, as he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1940. In 1942 he married Vivian Goldstein, completed an MA in physics at Princeton University, and joined the scientific staff of the Manhattan Project. During his time at Los Alamos, Olum’s social conscience led him to raise questions among his colleagues regarding the implications of the atomic bomb, and after its use against Japan, he became a lifelong advocate for peace and for proper control of nuclear technology.

He returned to Harvard after the war to complete his PhD in Mathematics in 1947 as a student of Hassler Whitney. Among his close friends was Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, who wrote in his autobiography of Paul’s intelligence. In one anecdote, Feynman told of an experience at Los Alamos when he had claimed to be able to take any problem that could be stated in ten seconds and find an answer to within ten percent in no more than sixty seconds. When this challenge was made to Paul, he quickly responded, “Find the tangent of 10 to the 100th.”^[1]

He returned to Harvard after the war to complete his PhD in Mathematics in 1947 as a student of Hassler Whitney.

[edit] Cornell

Following a postdoctoral year at the Institute for Advanced Study, he joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1949. Over the next 25 years at Cornell, Olum rose to the rank of professor, served in various administrative roles, and spent time as a visiting faculty member at the University of Paris, Hebrew University, Stanford University, and the University of Washington, and as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study.

As a mathematician Paul was widely respected for his research in algebraic topology. Although his list of publications is not long, his contributions were significant, particularly in the difficult area of obstruction theory, and they were published in the most prestigious journals.

In 1962 Olum initiated the Topology Festival, an annual regional professional gathering at which the major developments in the subject were presented. This became the most prestigious topology conference in the country and is still an annual event at Cornell.^[2]

From 1963 to 1966, Olum served as Mathematics Department chair.^[3]

Olum advocated the abolition of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities,^[4] was an early critic of the Vietnam War,^[5] and sought to remove the Reserve Officer Training Corps from the Cornell campus. Following the Willard Straight Hall Takeover in 1969, Olum chaired a committee to propose a major overhaul of Cornell's governance, including its Board of Trustees. Olum's relationship with his fellow Los Alamos physicist Dale Corson, who had just become Cornell's President, assisted in this difficult task. Olum lead the group which convinced the Trustees to adopt the plan, included a student-faculty University Senate and the addition of Trustees elected by students and by that Senate. In 1972, Olum was the first Faculty Trustee elected by Cornell students — the only such position in the nation at that time.

[edit] University of Texas

Olum served as Dean of the University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences from 1974 through 1976. Those were turbulent years, as President Stephen Spurr, who had hired Olum, was removed by the Board of Regents in fall 1974, and replaced by Lorene Rogers. All adminstrotors were placed in a difficult role while the faculty conducted a boycott of any faculty meetings chaired by Rogers.

[edit] University of Oregon

In 1976 Olum was named provost at the University of Oregon. Through their dark days of economic recession and budget cuts, he charted a path to success, serving as President from 1980 to 1989. Paul devoted his energy to strengthening the physical, intellectual, and moral foundation of the institution. As president he established 20 new research institutes and academic programs, built a new science complex—“the most significant construction program in the university’s history”—and helped develop the Riverfront Research Park, while staunchly supporting the fight against apartheid in South Africa and advocating nuclear disarmament^[6]

In 1987, the Executive Committee of State Board of Education set retirement date for Olum of 30 June 1989. Despite extensive faculty and student protest, this decision stood and Olum left office with the University a much stronger institution. The University named the Paul Olum Atrium and a mathematics research professorship in his honor.

Following his retirement from the University of Oregon in 1990, Olum moved to Athens, Greece, to be with his friend Margarita Papandreou, former wife of the Greek prime minister. In 1996, he returned to the United States to live with his son, Ken Olum, in Sharon, Massachusetts. ^[7]