Ralph Abraham

On September 19, 2024 Ralph Abraham, one of the most eclectic and widely known professors in UCSC's history passed away at the age of 88. Ralph came to Santa Cruz via the University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, Columbia and Princeton. It was at Princeton, at the urging of Princeton Physics Professor Arthur Wightman, that he gave a series of lectures in the Physics Department to both mathematicians and physicists alike. These lectures would result in his famous, highly influential and classic book Foundations of Mechanics which, with the assistance of Cal Tech Professor Jerrold Marsden, would appear in several editions for over a half a century.

In Ralph's own words:

In the Spring of 1966, I gave a series of lectures in the Princeton University Department of Physics, aimed at recent mathematical results in mechanics, especially the work of Kolmogorov, Arnold, and Moser and its application to Laplace's question of stability of the solar system. Mr. Marsden's notes of the lectures, with some revision and expansion by both of us, became this book. Although the lectures were attended equally by mathematicians and physicists, our goal was to make the subject available to the nonspecialists.

It was this book that certainly led, in1968, to his appointment of Associate Professor of Mathematics at Santa Cruz. At UCSC he immediately became politically active in opposing the Vietnam war, leading a protest before the first ever Regents meeting at UCSC that greatly agitated and annoyed founding UCSC Chancellor Dean McHenry.

As an active professor Ralph published a large number of books on mathematics. He was a visionary in seeing the need for a series of integrated undergraduate texts that followed the recommendations of the national CUPM committee (Committee on Undergraduate Preparation in Mathematics). He also created an entirely new and highly original series called The Visual Mathematics Library focusing on helping readers gain a visual understanding of the fields of mathematical dynamics and chaos theory, making him a pioneer in using computer graphics in exploring mathematical issues and at the time of his death he remained a leader in this area.

Even after his retirement in 1994 Ralph continued publishing an extraordinary, even mind bogglingly broad array of books, first on mathematics (especially on Chaos) and then on non mathematical topics. To mention a few: Chaos Gaia Eros: A Chaos Pioneer Uncovers the Three Great Streams of History (1994); Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness (with Rupert Sheldrake and Terence McKenna) (2001); The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination and Spirit (2005), documenting the discussions between three friends, all highly original thinkers: Rupert Sheldrake, controversial biologist, Terence McKenna, psychedelic visionary, and Ralph. Their discussions focus on the evolution of the mind, the role of psychedelics, skepticism, the psychic powers of animals, the structure of time, the life of the heavens, the nature of God, and transformations of consciousness.

His writing culminated with a series of volumes on his home town: Hip Santa Cruz: First-Person Accounts of the Hip Culture of Santa Cruz in the 1960s.

In conclusion, Ralph Abraham had an impressive impact on the mathematics community and the public, especially on our local community to an extent which was, for some mathematicians, unimaginable. At his packed Emeriti lecture, held at the UCSC concert hall, a member of the audience mid-lecture stood up, clearly emotionally overcome, began screaming:

He's a Genius, He's a Genius......

For those of us who knew him well Ralph was also a great friend, a truly wonderful and kind human being whom we will all very deeply miss.