Bernard Epstein

Bernard Epstein (10 August 1920, Harrison, New Jersey – 30 March 2005, Montgomery County, Maryland) was an American mathematician and physicist who wrote several widely used textbooks on mathematics.

Epstein was the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Romania, Yitzkhak Aharon Epstein and Sophie-Sarah née Goldenberg, and was the first person in his family to go to college.

In the early 1940s, he worked as a physicist at what is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

During World War II, he was selected to join the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bombs.

He received bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics and physics from New York University and then in 1947 a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, with thesis advisor Maurice Heins, from Brown University with thesis Method for the Solution of the Dirichlet Problem for Certain Types of Domains.

After the war, he worked for two years at Harvard University as a research associate, taught mathematics as an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and NYU and as a professor at Yeshiva University and then spent 21 years on the faculty of the University of New Mexico as a professor of mathematics until his retirement in 1984.

Sabbaticals included Office of Naval Research, London; The Technion in Haifa, Israel; University of Maryland; and Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

After retirement, he taught at George Mason University.

Epstein was dissertation advisor for the following Ph.D. students:

Upon his death at age 84, he was survived by his wife, five children, and 16 grandchildren.

His sixth child, a daughter, predeceased him.