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Lawrence Zalcman

Lawrence Zalcman was an American-born Israeli mathematician and professor at Bar-Ilan University, known for his work in complex analysis and for Zalcman's Lemma.

1943 to 2022Zalcman's LemmaResearch in complex analysisThe Pizzetti-Zalcman formulaAwards for mathematical exposition

Born: 9 June 1943, Kansas City
Died: 31 May 2022, Jerusalem
Occupation: mathematician, university teacher
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lawrence Zalcman was born in 1943 in Kansas City

Lawrence Allen Zalcman was born in 1943 in Kansas City, Missouri. His parents, Anna and Max Zalcman, had moved to the United States from Eastern Europe. His younger brother, Steven Zalcman, became a psychiatrist.

He finished Southwest High School in 1961 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1964. He earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968, under Kenneth Myron Hoffman. His thesis dealt with bounded analytic functions on domains of infinite connectivity.

He first taught at Stanford University, then moved to the University of Maryland in 1972 and became a full professor there in 1974. In 1985 he immigrated to Israel with his family and joined Bar-Ilan University. His research covered complex analysis, potential theory and their links to other fields, and several results bear his name.

He won the Lester R. Ford Award in 1975 and 1981, the Chauvenet Prize in 1976 and the Paul R. Halmos, Lester R. Ford Award in 2017. He retired as professor emeritus in 2011. He died in Jerusalem on May 31, 2022.