Frank Spitzer
Frank Ludvig Spitzer was an Austrian-born, Jewish-American mathematician who was a longtime professor at Cornell University and made fundamental contributions to probability theory, especially the theory of random walks, Brownian motion, and fluctuation theory, and then the theory of interacting particle systems. Other areas he made contributions to include percolation theory and the Wiener sausage. He focussed broadly on "phenomena", rather than any one of the many specific theorems that might help to articulate a given phenomenon. His book Principles of Random Walk, first published in 1964, remains a well-cited classic.
Spitzer was born on July 24, 1926, in Vienna, into an Austrian Jewish family. By the time he was twelve years old, the Nazi threat in Austria was evident. His parents were able to send him to a summer camp for Jewish children in Sweden, and, as a result, Spitzer spent all of the World War II years in Sweden. He lived with two Swedish families, learned Swedish, graduated from high school, and for one year attended Tekniska Hogskolan in Stockholm.
Spitzer was born on July 24, 1926, in Vienna, into an Austrian Jewish family. By the time he was twelve years old, the Nazi threat in Austria was evident. His parents were able to send him to a summer camp for Jewish children in Sweden, and, as a result, Spitzer spent all of the World War II years in Sweden. He lived with two Swedish families, learned Swedish, graduated from high school, and for one year attended Tekniska Hogskolan in Stockholm.
