Milton Abramowitz (19 February 1915 – 5 July 1958) was an American mathematician at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) who, with Irene Stegun, edited a classic book of mathematical tables called Handbook of Mathematical Functions, widely known as "Abramowitz and Stegun".
Abramowitz was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1915. He received a B. A. and M. A. from Brooklyn College (1937, 1940) and in 1948 received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from New York University. He joined the NBS Math Tables Project in 1938, and was later Chief of the Computation Laboratory of the NBS Applied Mathematics Division. In 1958, he died while mowing the lawn of his home in suburban Washington, when the heat caused a heart attack. In his memory, the Abramowitz Award is granted by the University of Maryland, College Park to students "for superior competence and promise in the field of mathematics and its applications." Winners of this award include Charles Fefferman and Sergey Brin.
At the time of Abramowitz' death, the book was not yet completed but was well underway. Stegun took over management of the project and was able to finish the work by 1964, working under the direction of the NBS Chief of Numerical Analysis Philip J. Davis, who was also a contributor to the book. The major work of producing reliable mathematical tables, was part of the WPA project of Franklin Roosevelt.
Description of Award
The Abramowitz Award is awarded for superior competence and promise in the field of mathematics and its applications.
This award was established in honor of Milton Abramowitz, a Maryland mathematics professor best known for his work on mathematical tables at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST). Former winners include Charles Fefferman (a Fields Medalist) and Sergey Brin (cofounder of Google).
Former Receipients
- 2025 Andrew Parker, Lisette Shaffer, Ekaterina Gribok, Quentin Ludet, Linsen Liu, Erin Hopper, David Koralov, Gary Peng, Katherine Krotkov, Tahmid Zaman, Dennis Oleg, Noah Kupinsky
- 2024 Ezra Aylaian, Emerson Hemley, Liron Karpati, Daniel Levy, George Li, Samuel Lidz, Turner McLaurin, Karthik Sellakumaran Latka, Matthew Schneider
- 2023 Ezra Aylaian, Emerson Hemley, Isaiah Hilsenrath, Saul Hilsenrath, George Li, Hugh McLaurin, Sriya Potlury, Matthew Simmons
- 2022 Ruijie Zheng
- 2021 Linden Yuan
- 2020 Justin Hontz, Erik Metz
- 2019 Erik Metz
- 2018 Justin Hontz
- 2017 Joseph Aaron Smiga and Kevin Jacob Smith
- 2016 Prayaag Venkat
- 2015 Stephen Gilles and Nicolas Paskal
- 2014 Douglas S. Ulrich
- 2013 Mandeep Singh Bedi
- 2012 Daniel Hauser
- 2011 Richard Matthew McCutchen
- 2010 Jacob Konikoff
- 2009 Ammar Husain and John Silberholz
- 2008 Matthew McGonagle and Ermin Wei
- 2007 Gaurav Thakur
- 2006 Bryant Lee
- 2005 Greg Crosswhite
- 2004 Jonathan Dahl
- 2003 Jared English
- 2002 Jonathan Pindrik
- 2001 William (Pat) Hooper
- 2000 William (Pat) Hooper
- 1999 Matthew Bainbridge
- 1998 David J. Clark
- 1997 Julie Freidlin
- 1996 Theresa H. Chow
- 1995 Dursun Bulutoglu
- 1994 Richard V. Durand
- 1993 Sergey Brin
- 1992 --
- 1991 --
- 1990 --
- 1989 --
- 1988 Harold K. Knight
- 1987 Sylvie A. Ryckebush
- 1986 Eric Bruce Zeisel
- 1985 Elise Cawley
- 1984 Chaya Joshi
- 1983 Geoffrey D. Birky, Alexander Stanoyevitch
- 1982 --
- 1981 Valerie Matthews, Steven Bonner
- 1980 Gary N. Stolovy
- 1979 --
- 1978 Glenn Joseph Galfond
- 1977 Charles Collins
- 1976 Robert B. Johnson
- 1975 William C. Quinn
- 1974 Jonathan L. Merzel
- 1973 Mary E. Morley, Eric Schecter
- 1972 Robert A. Fefferman, Russel M. Reid
- 1971 Thomas W. Hall, Jr.
- 1970 Karen Posey and Philip Feinsilver
- 1969 Michael Eddy
- 1968 Ralph P. Pass
- 1967 Robert M. Higginbotham
- 1966 Charles Fefferman
- 1965 Riho Terras
- 1964 Robert R. Clough
- 1963 Audrey Bowdoin (later Audrey Terras)
- 1962 Daniel M. Hyman
- 1961 First year of the award: Sallie A. Harwood