Kakutani, Shizuo
Kakutani, Shizuo,
1911–2004, Japanese mathematician, b. Osaka, Japan, grad. Tohoko Univ, Ph.D. Princeton, 1941. Kakutani repatriated to Japan during World War II, but returned to Princeton in 1948 and joined the faculty at Yale the following year, remaining there until his death. He did influential work in probability theory, particularly in the fields of ergodic theory (the use of statistical concepts to describe average properties in deterministic dynamical systems), functional analysis (a methodology used to explain the workings of a complex system), and Brownian motionBrownian movement or motion,zigzag, irregular motion exhibited by minute particles of matter when suspended in a fluid.
..... Click the link for more information. . He developed the Kakutani fixed-point theorem, which was instrumental in confirming the work of mathematician John Forbes NashNash, John Forbes, Jr.,
1928–2015, American mathematician, b. Bluefield, W.Va., grad. Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon Univ., B.A. and M.A. 1948), Ph.D. Princeton 1950.
..... Click the link for more information. and economists Kenneth J. ArrowArrow, Kenneth Joseph,
1921–2017, American economist, b. New York City, grad. City College of New York (B.S. 1940), Columbia (M.A. 1941, Ph.D. 1951). He was on the faculties of the Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. and Gerard DebreuDebreu, Gerard
, 1921–2005, French-American economist, b. Calais, France. He studied mathematics in France before coming to the United States in 1950, where he worked with the Chicago-based Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics.
..... Click the link for more information. , all of whom were awarded the Nobel memorial economics prize. Kakutani is also known for the Kakutani skyscraper, a methodology for describing a random process, such as the tossing of a coin, that organizes the process into a picture resembling an office building, making it easier to understand the properties of the process.