Victor Klee

Victor LaRue Klee, Jr. (September 18, 1925 – August 17, 2007) was a mathematician specialising in convex sets, functional analysis, analysis of algorithms, optimization, and combinatorics. He spent almost his entire career at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Victor Klee
Born	(1925-09-18)September 18, 1925 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	August 17, 2007(2007-08-17) (aged 81) Lakewood, Ohio, U.S.
Education	Pomona College University of Virginia (Ph.D.)
Known for	Kleetope Klee–Minty cube Klee's measure problem Algebraic Combinatorics g-Theorem Computational Convexity Hadwiger-Danzer–Grünbaum–Klee
Awards	Lester R. Ford Award (1972) Sloan Fellowship (1972) Guggenheim Fellowship (1972) Allendoerfer Award (1980, 1999) Max Planck Research Award (1992) American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Washington
Thesis	Convex Sets in Linear Spaces  (1949)
Doctoral advisor	Edward James McShane
Doctoral students	Bernd Sturmfels Robert Phelps

Life

Born in San Francisco, Vic Klee earned his B.A. degree in 1945 with high honors from Pomona College, majoring in mathematics and chemistry. He did his graduate studies, including a thesis on Convex Sets in Linear Spaces, and received his PhD in mathematics from the University of Virginia in 1949. After teaching for several years at the University of Virginia, he moved in 1953 to the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, where he was a faculty member for 54 years.^[1] He died in Lakewood, Ohio.

Research

Klee wrote more than 240 research papers. He proposed Klee's measure problem and the art gallery problem. Kleetopes are also named after him, as is the Klee–Minty cube,^[2] which shows that the simplex algorithm for linear programming does not work in polynomial time in the worst–case scenario.

Service and recognition

Klee served as president of the Mathematical Association of America from 1971 to 1973.^[1] In 1972 he won a Lester R. Ford Award.^[3] In 1977, the MAA recognized Klee by presenting him with their Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics.^[4]

Notes

1. Gritzmann, Peter; Sturmfels, Bernd (April 2008). "Victor L. Klee 1925–2007" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 55 (4). Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society: 467–473. ISSN 0002-9920.
2. Klee, Victor; Minty, George J. (1972). "How good is the simplex algorithm?". In Shisha, Oved (ed.). Inequalities III (Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Inequalities held at the University of California, Los Angeles, Calif., September 1–9, 1969, dedicated to the memory of Theodore S. Motzkin). New York-London: Academic Press. pp. 159–175. MR 0332165.
3. Klee, Victor (1971). "What is a convex set?". Amer. Math. Monthly. 78 (6): 616–631. doi:10.2307/2316569. JSTOR 2316569.
4. Botts, Truman (1977). "Award for Distinguished Service to Professor Victor Klee". The American Mathematical Monthly. 84 (2): 81–82. doi:10.1080/00029890.1977.11994293. ISSN 0002-9890.

Further reading

• Grünbaum, Branko; Robert R. Phelps; Peter L. Renz; Kenneth A. Ross (November 2007). "Remembering Vic Klee" (PDF). MAA Focus. 27 (8). Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America: 20–22. ISSN 0731-2040. Retrieved 2009-05-22. Short biography, and reminiscences of colleagues.

External links

• Applied Geometry and Discrete Mathematics a volume dedicated to Klee on his 65th birthday.
• Brief obituary at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
• AMS column: People Making a Difference
• Victor Klee at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• MAA presidents: Victor LaRue Klee
• Shapes of the Future: Some unsolved problems in geometry. Two dimensions, Three dimensions