Arthur Lubin is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Illinois Institute of Technology. (Actually, he works in Pure, not Applied, Mathematics, but the details of the apparent inconsistency are not important here.) If you haven’t heard of IIT, that’s not surprising. It’s a small (6,500 students), prestigious technical school, situated in the heart of the windy city (Chicago). Very much in keeping with what has always been Arthur’s persona of striving for excellence without seeking notoriety.
He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin where he did his dissertation on *-Invariant Subspaces of H*2(D). Scintillating reading.
His current research interests are “Commuting contractions in Hilbert space, spectral theory, models for analytic functions, linear system theory, and a little non-standard analysis.”
Selected Publications to which Arthur contributed (knowing him, he probably did it all) include:
· On bounded solutions of non-linear differential equations, with J. A. Goldstein, SIAM J. Math. Anal. (5) 1975, 837-841.
· On a class of contractive perturbations of restricted shifts, with J. A. Ball, Pacific J. Math. (63) 1976, 309-323.
· Commuting weighted shifts and analytic function theory in several variables, with N. Jewell, J. Operator Theory (1) 1979, 207-223.
· A note on single input controllability for normal systems, Math. Sys. Theory (15) 1982, 371-373.
· Dilation and commutant lifting for jointly isometric operators - a geometric approach, with K. R. M. Attele, J. Funct. Anal. (140) 1996, 300-311.
Most of us remember Arthur’s uncanny mastery of just about any academic subject he tackled in school, especially mathematics. What we may not associate with the Lubin name is his athletic prowess bundled in his 6’3.5” frame. Great jump shot, gazelle-like downfield runner and sure handed shortstop. He says he no longer follows sports, however.
Arthur and his wife, Eloise, have been married since 1975. They met in Evanston back when Arthur was teaching at Northwestern. While Arthur is crunching numbers, Eloise spends her days as a homemaker and interior designer. Together, the couple have six children aged 12, 14, 18, 20, 24 and 26.
The younger two attend elementary school and high school, while the eighteen year-old studies at Yeshiva in Manchester, U.K. The twenty-year-old teaches high school in Morristown and the twenty-four year-old is married with a son and also teaches high school in Morristown. The eldest is married (with two daughters). He is and the Director of the Chabad Center of Madison-Chatham- Florham Park and serves as the Rabbi of Congregation of Shaya Ahavath Torah in Parsipanny.
As is plainly obvious from his photograph, Arthur has embraced the life of Jewish orthodoxy, following the teachings of Rabbi M. M. Schneerson. For eight years, Arthur had served as president Congregation Bnei Ruven, which recently entered its second century. He and Eloise were honored at a gala dinner for their years of service to the synagogue.
What was the happiest day of Arthur’s life? He says it has not yet occurred, since he sees his happiness function continually increasing. He is as yet unable to determine whether it in fact has an upper bound. When we ponder that response, we realize that, as a mathematician, he finds it problematic to deal with absolutes of “happiest” and “life”.
He invites all old friends to contact him at his e-mail address: lubin@iit.edu
(Note: Although this profile is not necessarily overwhelmingly exciting and/or interesting, you should have seen the original version before editing, for which the profilee is most grateful)
