OBITUARIES, Aug. 10, 2007

Atle Selberg, Carl E. Fuchs, Cephas H. Monnett

Atle Selberg


Mathematician
   
Norwegian mathematician Atle Selberg, professor emeritus in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, died Monday at his home in Princeton. He was 90.
   Throughout a career spanning more than six decades, Professor Selberg made significant contributions to modular forms, Riemann and other zeta functions, analytic number theory, sieve methods, discrete groups and trace formula.
   The impact of his work is evident from the many mathematical terms that bear his name: The Selberg Trace Formula, The Selberg Sieve, The Selberg Integral, The Selberg Class, The Rankin-Selberg L-Function, The Selberg Eigenvalue Conjecture, and The Selberg Zeta Function.
   Peter Sarnak, professor in the School of Mathematics, noted, "The 20th century was blessed with a number of very talented mathematicians, and of those, there are a few who I would say had a golden touch. In any topic about which they thought in depth, they saw further and uncovered much more — seemingly effortlessly — than the generations before them. Their work set the stage for many future developments. Atle was one such mathematician; he was a mathematician’s mathematician."
   Widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest analytic number theorists, Professor Selberg first came to the Institute for Advanced Study from Norway in 1947 at the invitation of Carl Ludwig Siegel, who noted that, at 31 years of age, he "already had earned his place in the history of science in the 20th century." After a year at the institute, Professor Selberg took a post as associate professor at Syracuse University, returning to the institute in 1949 as a permanent member. In 1951, he was appointed professor in the institute’s School of Mathematics, and he was named professor emeritus in 1987.
   During the 1940s, his work centered around the theory of the Riemann Zeta Function and related problems concerning the distribution of prime numbers. For these works, Professor Selberg was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal in 1950.
   In the early 1950s, he turned his attention to the spectral theory of automorphic forms. Professor Selberg continued to lecture, elaborate, and develop new aspects of the many topics that he pioneered until well into his 80s.
   In 1987, nearly 100 mathematicians from all over the world convened in Oslo, Norway, for a symposium in honor of Professor Selberg’s 70th birthday. In the preface to the collection of the 29 papers presented at the symposium and published by Academic Press in 1989, fellow mathematician Karl Egil Aubert extolled his "many-sided achievements (that) place him squarely as one of the truly great mathematicians of the 20th century."
   Enrico Bombieri, IBM von Neumann Professor in the School of Mathematics at the institute, has described the hallmark of Professor Selberg’s style as "simplicity and elegance of method, (and) powerful results. He had an uncanny ability to see immediately what was at the core of an issue. This ability was by no means restricted to scientific matters."
   In celebration of Profesor Selberg’s 90th birthday in June , the institute invited his close colleagues and friends to salute his lifetime of achievement. Professor Selberg himself spoke at length at the event, and noted of the institute’s early days.
   Dr. Selberg was born in Langesund, Norway. At the age of 13, he began to study mathematics using his father’s extensive library. In 1934, he came upon a copy of the collected works of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, which an older brother had brought home with him from school. At age 17, he wrote his first article, "On Some Arithmetical Identities." The next year, he began his education at the University of Oslo, where he submitted the paper for review to one of his professors. A year later, the article was published.
   By the time Professor Selberg obtained his doctorate in 1943, also at the University of Oslo, he had published 11 more articles, the later ones focusing on Riemann’s Zeta Function. His paper on The Selberg Integral dates from this period and it is his only paper in Norwegian; it took more than 30 years to be recognized for its importance. He defended his dissertation in November of 1943, shortly before the German occupying forces closed down the university for the duration of the war.
   He had been appointed a research fellow at the University of Oslo in 1942, the year before he received his doctorate. Professor Selberg remained in this post until 1947, when he married and moved to the United States.
   During the Second World War he worked in isolation due to the occupation of Norway by the Nazis, but after the war, his accomplishments in the theory of the Riemann Zeta Function became known.
   In 1987, Professor Selberg was named a Knight Commander with Star of the Royal Order of Saint Olav.
   Professor Selberg’s first wife, Hedvig, worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in the 1950s, and later at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory until the 1980s; she died in 1995. He is survived by his second wife, Betty Compton Selberg of Princeton; two children from his first marriage, daughter and son-in-law Ingrid Maria Selberg and Mustapha Matura of London, and son and daughter-in-law Lars A. and Julia Selberg of Middlefield, Conn.; stepdaughters Heidi Faith of Mountainview, Calif. and Cindy Faith of Roland Park, Md.; and grandchildren Cayal Mathura, Maya Kristina Mathura, Atle Michael Selberg, and Katherine Rowley Selberg.
   Details about a memorial will be made available at a later date.
   In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Galapagos Conservancy, 407 N. Washington St., Suite 105, Falls Church, VA 22046, www.galapagos.org.
Carl E. Fuchs


Local landscaper, gardener
   
TRENTON — Carl E. Fuchs died July 31 at home. He was 73.
   He lived in the New Jersey area for the last 20 years residing in Princeton, Hopewell, and the last three years in Trenton.
   In the restaurant and hotel business much of his life, he moved to Princeton in 1988 and began a new career in landscaping and gardening. For 16 years he took care of many properties in the Princeton area. When he retired he continued his love of gardening, cooking and decorating.
   He was an active member of the Princeton United Methodist Church, where he sang as a tenor in the church choir.
   Born in Amityville, N.Y., he attended Amityville High School, graduating in 1951. He worked at the family restaurant, the Narragansett Inn, sang with the First Methodist Church choir, performed with the Amityville Gilbert and Sullivan Society and raised chickens, selling eggs in the neighborhood.
   Mr. Fuchs attended Cornell University where he was a member of the Seal and Serpent fraternity. He graduated in 1955 with a degree from the School of Hotel Administration. However, his first love was singing with his college singing group the Cayuga Waiters, a triple quartet, with whom over the years he continued to share reunions, memories, and songs.
   After Cornell, he spent a year at Juilliard School of Music studying choral directing. He then served in the Navy as a chaplain’s assistant.
   He started his career in the restaurant and hotel business working as a manager for American News at various locations, including the Okinawa Officer’s Club and the Round House restaurant at the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
   Subsequently he worked as an interior designer in New York City for Renny B. Saltzman Interiors, and then started his own business, Interior One. His private clients included the noted pianist George Shearing. During this period he also owned and operated a gift store in Brooklyn.
   In 1975, he founded The Palms restaurant in Basseterre on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. He then developed a small destination hotel on Banana Bay, a remote part of St. Kitts that was accessible only by boat. He worked at his hotel and restaurant for 12 years before moving to the Princeton area.
   Son of the late Carl and Edith Fuchs, he is survived by his partner, Barry Richards; brother and sister-in-law Robert L. and Jeanne Fuchs of Ft. Myers, Fla.; sister and brother-in-law Elizabeth Fillo and Chris Coucill of Princeton; four nephews; five grandnephews; and three grandnieces.
   A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 15 at Princeton United Methodist Church, 7 Vandeventer Ave., Princeton.
   In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Princeton United Methodist Church Air Conditioning Fund, 7 Vandeventer Ave., Princeton, NJ 08542.
   Arrangements are by Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.
Cephas H. Monnett


Tennis coach
   
Cephas H. Monnett died Saturday at Acorn Glen assisted living residence in Princeton. He was 89.
   Born in Elizabeth and raised in Rahway, Mr. Monnett was employed for over 32 years by Phelps Dodge Corp. and won numerous management awards in this country and Venezuela.
   A top New Jersey tennis and badminton player, Mr. Monnett became a well-known tennis instructor after retiring from Phelps Dodge in 1974.
   He mentored and coached the most accomplished tennis players to come from the Princeton area, including Nicole Arendt, Wimbledon ladies double finalist, and Jay Lapidus, a top U.S. singles player and current Duke University tennis coach.
   Son of the late Cephas H. Monnett Sr. and Margaret Tynch Monnett, husband of the late Betty Monnett and brother of the late Marguerite Miller and Charles Monnett, he is survived by a nephew, Robert L. Brock of Meridian, Idaho; niece Barbara Freeman of Maui; grandnephews David, Donald and Thomas Brock; and grandniece Marina Freeman.
   A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 8 at the Rossmoor Community Church, 1 Village Mall, Monroe Township.
   Burial was private in the Princeton Cemetery.
   In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to USTA Tennis & Education Foundation, 70 West Red Oak Lane, White Plains, NY 10604.
   Arrangements are by Mather-Hodge Funeral Home , Princeton.