Alexander Abian
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Alexander Abian (January 1, 1923–July 1999) was an American mathematician who taught for many years at Iowa State University but who became an internet legend for his incessant and frequently bizarre posts to various UseNet newsgroups.
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[edit] Life
Abian was born in Tabriz, Iran of Armenian descent. After earning an undergraduate degree in Iran, he emigrated to the United States in 1952. After earning a masters degree from the University of Chicago, Abian went on to earn a Ph. D. from the University of Cincinnati, where he wrote a dissertation on a topic in invariant theory under the direction of Isaac Barnett. After teaching posts in Tennessee, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, he joined the faculty of Iowa State in 1967. He wrote three books, published more than two hundred papers, and is said to have proven three "named theorems". He is also remembered for his dedication to teaching and for his extraordinary patience in helping his students overcome any mental block which might be retarding their progress.
[edit] Moonless Earth theory
It seems probable that few who knew Abian only from his mathematical work would be likely to guess that he would gain some degree of international notoriety for his claim that blowing up the Moon would solve virtually every problem of human existence. Such a claim was made in 1991 in a campus newspaper.[1] Stating that a moonless Earth wouldn't wobble, eliminating both the seasons and its associated events like heat waves, snowstorms and hurricanes. Refutations were given toward that idea by NASA saying that part of the exploded Moon would come back as a meteorite slamming on the Earth hard enough to blow out all life form on the Earth and the seasons in the same process. Just before he died, Abian said that "Those critics who say 'Dismiss Abian's ideas' are very close to those who dismissed Galileo".[2] This claim and others, made in thousands of UseNet posts during the last portion of his life, gained Abian mention (not entirely favorable) and even interviews in such publications as Omni, People, and The Wall Street Journal.
[edit] Graduate students
| Name | School | Year |
|---|---|---|
| William McWorter | Ohio State University | 1963 |
| David Deever | Ohio State University | 1966 |
| David Haines | Ohio State University | 1969 |
| David Oakland | Iowa State University | 1970 |
| Clive Sommer | Iowa State University | 1970 |
| Esfandiar Eslami | Iowa State University | 1982 |
| Donald Steiner | Iowa State University | 1984 |
| Andrew Martin | Iowa State University | 1988 |
| Wael Amin | Iowa State University | 1989 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ "YIKES!: GOODNIGHT, MOON Shoot the moon? Hell, says Prof. Alexander Abian, why not just blow it up?;", People, June 24, 1991. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
- ^ Morin, Richard. "Drunks + Kids = Profits", The Washington Post, May 30, 2006. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
[edit] References
- Abian, Alexander (1965). The theory of sets and transfinite arithmetic. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. LCCN 65023086.
- Abian, Alexander (1971). Linear associative algebras. New York: Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-016564-8.
[edit] External links
- Abian's web page (archived at U. C. Davis).
