John Rainwater | |
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Born | 1952 Seattle, Washington |
Residence | Seattle, Washington State |
Citizenship | United States of America |
Nationality | United States of America |
Fields | Functional analysis, topology |
Institutions | University of Washington |
Alma mater | University of Washington |
Known for |
Rainwater's theorem, |
Influences | John R. Isbell, Robert R. Phelps |
Influenced | Joseph Diestel |
John Rainwater is the pseudonym of a fictitious mathematician, in whose name mathematicians publish papers. Rainwater has worked mainly in functional analysis, particularly in the geometric theory of Banach spaces and in convex functions. in his career over five decades at the University of Washington (Seattle), whose seminar in functional analysis is called the "Rainwater seminar".[1]
Contents |
Rainwater was invented by graduate students at the University of Washington in 1952, when students used an extra registration-form to enroll Rainwater in a course on real functions. Students submitted homework for Rainwater throughout the semester, until the Professor picked up a fountain pen with Rainwater's name, which exploded![2]
Early on, Rainwater distinguished himself by solving problems in the American Mathematical Monthly, whose sponsoring society, the Mathematical Association of America, invited him to join.[1] John R. Isbell published the first paper in Rainwater's name. Other mathematicians have published papers using the name "Rainwater", and acknowledged "Rainwater's assistance" in articles. The seminar on functional analysis at the University of Washington has been called called the "Rainwater seminar".[1]
In 2002, Robert Phelps summarized the impact of Rainwater's research: His first paper (by Isbell) was in topology and has 19 citations. While only one-page, Rainwater's note in the 1963 Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society had eight citations in papers; its main result is called "Rainwater's theorem" in books on convex functions and functional analysis. "There is even one citation to number 13, his unpublished 1967 Rainwater Seminar note on Lindenstrauss spaces," which are named after a construction by Joram Lindenstrauss. "In summary, it appears that most of John Rainwater's published work has been reasonably well received."[1] While Rainwater is lesser known and younger than Nicolas Bourbaki (the pseudonym for a collective of leading French mathematicians), he is more senior and has more publications than the combination of research by three other pseudonymous mathematicians—Peter Orno, M. G. Stanley, and H. C. Enos.[3]
Many internationally renowned mathematicians have published under the name of John Rainwater. John Isbell wrote Rainwater's first, second, and tenth papers; by 2002, Isbell had also written or coauthored six other pseudonymous papers under two other names. Functional analyst Robert R. Phelps wrote the third, ninth, eleventh (an unpublished note for the Rainwater seminar), twelfth, and thirteenth (with Peter D. Morris), fifteenth (with Isaac Namioka), and sixteenth (with David Preiss) papers. Irving Glicksberg wrote the fourth and eighth papers. Edgar Asplund wrote the seventh. "Paper 14 is a departure for John Rainwater. Not only is it in algebra, but he doesn't thank anyone for helpful conversations. He notes, however, that his work was supported by four different grants. (Culprits this time were Ken Brown, Ken Goodearl, Toby Stafford and Bob Warfield.)" John Rainwater's c.v. lists an incomplete collection of problems or solutions that he contributed to the American Mathematical Monthly, the earliest in 1959 (by John Isbell).[1]
John Rainwater came into existence at the University of Washington in 1952 when Nick Massey, a mathematics graduate student in Prof. Maynard Arsove's beginning real variables class, erroneously received a blank registration card. (In those years, each student filled out a card for every class, which first circulated among various tabulating clerks in the registrar's office before being sent to the professor.) He and a fellow graduate student, Sam Saunders, decided to use the card to enroll a fictional student, and since it was raining at the time, decided to call him "John Rainwater". They handed in John Rainwater's homework regularly, so it wasn't until after the first midterm exam that Prof. Arsove became aware of the deception. He took it well, even when he later opened an "exploding" fountain pen with John Rainwater's name engraved on it which had been left on the classroom table. After remarks by Arsove, such as "I guess I'll never see Rainwater except in a barrel," virtually all the students learned of the Rainwater prank. (Phelps 2002)