Felix Browder, professor of mathematics at Rutgers University, died Dec. 10, 2016. He was 89.
Browder graduated from MIT in 1946, at age 18. In 1948, he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton. With his father, Earl, known as a prominent leader of the Communist Party USA, the younger Browder had difficulty getting hired in the McCarthy era.
After Army service, Eleanor Roosevelt helped him gain a faculty position at Brandeis University in 1955. Browder later taught at Yale for seven years, and then joined the University of Chicago for more than 20 years, including 11 as department chair. In 1986, he joined Rutgers in the new position of vice president of research.
Browder was instrumental in establishing a science and technology center in conjunction with Princeton and Bell Labs. As president of the American Mathematical Society in 1999 and 2000, he lobbied Congress for added funds for math education. Browder was renowned in the field of non-linear functional analysis, a branch of mathematics with wide application to physics, engineering, and finance. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Science.
Browder was predeceased in 2015 by his wife of 66 years, Eva Tislowitz. He is survived by two sons, five grandchildren, and two brothers (including William *58, Princeton professor of mathematics).
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.