Joseph (“Joe”) Auslander died peacefully at his home in Washington, D.C., on April 7, 2025, halfway through his 95th year. Moments before, he had fallen asleep sitting at his computer while working on a mathematical problem.
Joe was born September 10, 1930, in New York City, to Dr. Jacob “Bi” Auslander and Rebekah Zeltzer Auslander. He attended P.S. 9 and the High School of Music and Art on the Upper West Side, then Queens College and MIT, before getting his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the mathematics department at the University of Maryland-College Park in 1963 and remained an active participant in the intellectual life of the department into his retirement, attending a departmental conference two days before his death.
Joe was a committed advocate for younger mathematicians, especially those from historically under-represented backgrounds. A true citizen of the world, Joe had deep friendships and collaborations with mathematicians around the globe. In addition to his long research career in the field of topological dynamics, he was fascinated by the history and philosophy of science and mathematics, publishing on the enduring problem of “what makes a proof a proof?”
Joe’s coming of age was shaped by the passionate anti-fascism of his friends and extended family, including a large circle of cousins. He shared their love of classical music, art, literature, storytelling, and Jewish-inflected humor. He himself was a masterful teller of jokes. He remained active in progressive politics throughout his life, with particular attention to the pursuit of a just and compassionate peace in the Middle East. He was a life-long consumer of the New York Times and of its crossword puzzles. He loved to cook and presided, with his wife Barbara, over many dinner parties with friends old and new. An amateur clarinetist, he particularly loved Mozart and Haydn, and above all Beethoven.
For the last 37 years Joe was married to his beloved wife Barbara Meeker, emerita professor of sociology at the University of Maryland. His earlier marriages to Ruth Epstein Auslander and Harriet Little ended in divorce. He is survived by Barbara, sister Irene “Judy” Auslander Saks, children Mark and Bonnie Auslander, daughter-in-law Ellen Schattschneider, grandchildren Nina and Milo, brother-in-law Alan Saks, niece Eva Saks, numerous cousins, the mathematical community, and a host of friends.
Donations in Joe’s name are welcome to the Project NExT fund for emerging mathematicians of the Mathematical Association of America: maa.org/support-maa/donate/
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See a family history of the Auslander and Zeltzer sides of Joe’s family, written by Mark Auslander on the occasion of Joe’s 90th birthday in 2020: https://joeauslander90.blogspot.com/2020/09/joes-family-history-zeltzers-and.html
