Tobias Dantzig


Tobias Dantzig was an American mathematician, the father of George Dantzig, and the author of and Aspects of Science.

Biography

Born in Shavli into the family of Shmuel Dantzig and Guta Dimant, he grew up in Lodz and studied mathematics with Henri Poincaré in Paris. His brother Jacob, was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust; he also had a brother Naftali and sister Emma.
Tobias married a fellow Sorbonne University student, Anja Ourisson, and the couple emigrated to the United States in 1910. He worked for a time as a lumberjack, road worker, and house painter in Oregon, until returning to academia at the encouragement of Reed College mathematician Frank Griffin. Dantzig received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University in 1917, while working as a professor there. He later taught at Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, and the University of Maryland.
Dantzig died in Los Angeles in 1956. He was the father of George Dantzig, a key figure in the development of linear programming.

Memorable quotation

"The harmony of the universe knows only one musical form—the legato; while the symphony of number knows only its opposite—the staccato. All attempts to reconcile this discrepancy are based on the hope that an accelerated staccato may appear to our senses as a legato."

Partial list of publications