George David Birkhoff's contributions as a theoretical mathematician, a teacher, and a member of the international scientific community rank him as one of the foremost mathematicians of the 20th century. He made extensive contributions to the area of differential equations and continued the work of the great French mathematician Jules Henri Poincaré on celestial mechanics. He is considered the founder of the modern theory of dynamical systems.

Born in Overisel, Michigan, on March 21, 1884, Birkhoff was the eldest of six children born to David Birkhoff, a physician, and Jane Gertrude Droppers. When Birkhoff was two years old, his family moved to Chicago, where he spent most of his childhood. From 1896 to 1902 Birkhoff studied at the Lewis Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology). Following a year at the University of Chicago as an undergraduate, Birkhoff transferred to Harvard University in 1903. In 1904, while still an undergraduate, he wrote his...