Jerrold Marsden, the Carl F. Braun Professor of Engineering, Control and Dynamical Systems, and Applied and Computational Mathematics at Caltech, died Sept. 21, 2010. He was 68.
Born in Canada, Marsden received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1965, and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton in 1968. He then was a professor at UC, Berkeley, before joining Caltech in 1992.
According to a statement released by Caltech, “Marsden was one of the leading world experts in mathematical and theoretical mechanics. His work spanned a variety of fields, including fluid mechanics, geometric mechanics, control theory, dynamical systems, and numerical methods." Advances in many areas can be traced to his work.
Marsden wrote six math textbooks and 14 monographs — many of which are the definitive references in their field. Caltech’s Graduate Student Council gave him its teaching and mentoring award. Among his other honors are awards bearing the names of Wiener, Humboldt, Planck, and von Neumann. He was a member of the Royal Societies of Britain and Canada and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Marsden is survived by his wife, Barbara; two children from two prior marriages, including Alison ’98; and two grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.