The Mathematics of Chandler Davis

Chandler Davis begins his memoir "The Purge" by recalling childhood fears that his inclination to study science would conflict with the obligations he felt as a citizen. Reassured by his mentors, he went on to a distinguished career as a mathematician. Remarkably he simultaneously fulfilled his ambition to improve the world at large: if not quite to establish world socialism, then certainly to modify for the better the politics of his profession. Here, Holbrook examines Davis' mathematical publications and gives a brief account of some prominent features of that large body of work, including their repercussions in the broader mathematical literature.