Mark Kac ( KAHTS; Polish: Marek Kac; August 3, 1914 – October 26, 1984) was a Polish American mathematician. He was born to a Polish-Jewish family; their town, Kremenets (Polish: "Krzemieniec"), changed hands from the Russian Empire to Poland when Kac was a child. His main interest was probability theory. His question, "Can one hear the shape of a drum?" set off research into spectral theory, with the idea of understanding the extent to which the spectrum allows one to read back the geometry. (In the end, the answer was "no", in general.)
Born |
3 August 1914 Krzemieniec, Russian Empire
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Died |
26 October 1984 (aged 70) Southern California, California, United States
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Zodiac | Leo |
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