Jacob Willem "Wim" Cohen (27 August 1923 Leeuwarden – 12 November 2000) was a Dutch mathematician, well known for over hundred scientific publications and several books in queueing theory.

Wim Cohen
Born(1923-08-27)August 27, 1923
DiedNovember 12, 2000(2000-11-12) (aged 77)
Resting placeHaifa
Alma materDelft University
Scientific career
FieldsQueueing theory
InstitutionsPhilips
University of Utrecht
Delft University
ThesisOn stress calculations in helicoidal shells and propeller blades (1955)
Doctoral advisorWarner T. Koiter[1]
Doctoral studentsOnno Boxma

Cohen was born in a Jewish family, as the son of Benjamin Cohen and Aaltje Klein.[2] Having acquired an autodidact knowledge of mathematics while in hiding during World War II, Cohen got an Engineer's degree (1949) and Ph.D. degree (1955) in mechanical engineering at Delft University, on a dissertation titled Stress Calculations in Helicoidal Shells and Propeller Blades. He worked as teletraffic engineer with the Telecommunications group at Philips (1950–57), at the applied mathematics department at Delft (1957–73) and University of Utrecht (1973-1998). He was buried in Haifa.[3][4]

Books

edit
  • The single server queue (1969)
  • Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioural Sciences (Academic Press, 1969)
  • On regenerative processes in queueing theory
  • Boundary value problems in queueing systems (Elsevier, 1983). Editor with Onno J. Boxma.
  • Analysis of random walks (IOS Press, 1992)

Awards

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Wim Cohen at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Wim Cohen", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  3. ^ Syski, R. (2001). "Remembering Wim Cohen". Journal of Applied Mathematics and Stochastic Analysis. 14: 1–9. doi:10.1155/S1048953301000028.
  4. ^ Boxma, O. J.; Syski, R. (2001). "Obituary: Jacob Willem Cohen". Journal of Applied Probability. 38 (2): 604. doi:10.1239/jap/996986766. S2CID 121138522.