Joseph R. Shoenfield

Joseph Robert Shoenfield
Born	Detroit, Michigan, US
Died	November 15, 2000(2000-11-15) (aged 73) Durham, North Carolina, US
Residence	United States
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Known for	Shoenfield absoluteness theorem
Awards	Gödel Lecturer (1992)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematical logic
Institutions	Duke University
Thesis	Models of Formal Systems (1953)
Doctoral advisor	Raymond Louis Wilder

Joseph Robert Shoenfield (1927, Detroit – November 15, 2000, Durham, North Carolina) was an American mathematical logician.

Education

Shoenfield obtained his PhD in 1953 with Raymond Louis Wilder at the University of Michigan (Models of formal systems).

Career

From 1952, he lectured at Duke University, where he remained until becoming Emeritus in 1992. From 1970 to 1973 he was President of the Mathematics Faculty. In 1956/57 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study. Shoenfield worked on recursion theory, model theory and axiomatic set theory. His textbook on mathematical logic has become a classic.

Honors

From 1972 to 1976 he was president of the Association for Symbolic Logic. He delivered the Gödel Lecture at the 1992 meeting of the ASL.

Hobbies

Already in his student days, he was a passionate and strong contract bridge player. He was an early member Number 694 of the American Go Association and the Memorial Tournament in North Carolina was founded in his memory. (The link includes a photograph of him.)

Selected publications

• Mathematical Logic, Addison Wesley 1967, 2nd edition, Association for Symbolic Logic, 2001
• Degrees of unsolvability, North Holland Mathematical Studies 1971
• Recursion theory, Springer 1993

References

• Jockusch, Carl G. (2001). "In Memoriam: Joseph R. Shoenfield 1927–2000". The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic. 7 (3): 393–396.
• Shoenfield, Joseph R. (2001) [1967]. Mathematical Logic (2nd ed.). A K Peters. ISBN 978-1-56881-135-2.
• Shoenfield, Joseph R. (2000). Recursion Theory. A K Peters Ltd. ISBN 1-56881-149-7.