Obituaries: Sherman Cabot Lowell

May 3, 2002

Sherman Cabot Lowell, long-time member of SIAM, died on February 28, 2001, at the age of 82. He served as a SIAM Visiting Lecturer in 1963-64, and in 1971-74. He was vice president and program chair for the Pacific Northwest Section in 1971-72, and president from 1972 to 1974.

Sherman received his PhD from the Courant Institute at New York University, under the direction of James Stoker. He was subsequently a member of the team, headed by Stoker and Gene Isaacson, that developed a computer program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use in calculating flood levels along rivers. Such a program is still in use by the Corps of Engineers.

In 1962 Ottis Rechard persuaded Sherman to join the faculty of Washington State University, at first as professor of mathematics and information science and mathematician in the Computing Center, later as professor in the Physics Department, where he served a short term as acting chair. He was a vital link at the university between mathematics, its applications, and computing.

Sherman remained at WSU for his professional career, except for a leave in 1968-69 at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides and the Centre de Recherches sur les Tres Basses Temperatures at the University of Paris, and a visit to the Courant Institute in 1976.

An awesome fisherman, he was a charter member of the Federation of Fly Fisherman.

He was deeply loved and admired by all who knew him.---Peter Lax, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.


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