1914-1984

Polish-born American mathematician who was a pioneer in the development of important concepts in probability theory and statistical mechanics. Kac's work is best known for its wide application to statistical physics and its attempt to explain the relationships between space dimensionality (i.e., dimensions of space-time) and physical phenomena. The Feynman-Kac path integral (named after Richard Feynman, the physicist and Nobel laureate, and Kac) remains an important method for quantization. Kac's work also included renowned publications dealing with statistical probability and number theory.