J. L. Doob
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
February 27, 1910 - June 7, 2004
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Scientific Discipline: Mathematics Membership Type:
Emeritus
(elected 1957)
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Joseph Doob was a pioneer in the fields of analysis and probability theory, working on the theory of Stochastic “martingale” processes. He wrote his dissertation on analytic functions and their boundary values. His book, Stochastic Processes, was published in 1953 and is one of the most important books on probability theory. The American Mathematical Society awards the Joseph L. Doob Prize for outstanding mathematical literature every three years.
Doob attended Harvard University, where he earned his undergraduate degree and his PhD. He accepted a position in 1935 as associate professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois, where he worked until retiring in 1978. During World War II he served as a civilian consultant to the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C., and in Guam. He was president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Mathematical Society.
