Albert Arnold Bennett Jr.

Albert Arnold Bennett, Jr. PhD. (1888-1971) was an American mathematician who worked primarily in numerical analysis, modern algebra, and symbolic logic.

Bennett was born on June 2, 1888 in Yokohama, Japan to Albert Arnold Bennett Sr. and Mela Isabel Barrows Bennett. When he turned fourteen, he left Japan and went to live with other relatives to continue his education in Providence, RI. In 1910, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University; in 1911, he got his master of science degree. In 1915, he earned a PhD at Princeton University. During his time at Princeton, he spent one year at the mathematical center at University of Göttingen.^[1]

He became an army captain during World War I where he focused on mathematical work at Aberdeen Proving Ground. After World War I, he worked as a civilian ballistics expert for the United States Department of War. He went on to teach at the University of Texas and was chair of the Mathematics Department at Lehigh University.^[1] In 1922, he was the editor of the American Mathematical Monthly.^[2] In 1927, he returned to Brown University as a professor of mathematics.^[1] During World War II, he returned to Aberdeen Proving Ground . After the second world war, he was a ballistics expert in Tokyo, Japan where he reached the rank Lieutenant Colonel. When he retired from Brown, he continued to teach at Southern Illinois University, the University of Rhode Island, and Boston College. He taught at Boston College until one week before his death.^[1] His doctoral students were William Vann Parker (1931) and Marlow Sholander (1949).

In 1932 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[3]

He died on February 17, 1971.

• Albert Arnold Bennett Jr. at the Mathematics Genealogy Project