Robert Stuart Doran (born December 21, 1937) is an American mathematician. He held the John William and Helen Stubbs Potter Professorship in mathematics at Texas Christian University (TCU) from 1995 until his retirement in 2016. Doran served as chair of the TCU mathematics department for 21 years.[1] He has also held visiting appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Oxford, and the Institute for Advanced Study. He was elected to the board of trustees of the Association of Members of the Institute for Advanced Study, serving as president of the organization for 10 years.[2][3] He has been an editor for the Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, Cambridge University Press, a position he has held since 1988.[4] Doran is known for his research-level books, his award-winning teaching, and for his solution to a long-standing open problem due to Irving Kaplansky on a symmetric *-algebra.[5]
Doran taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In 1988 he published an article titled "A care package for undergraduate mathematics students" that outlined his teaching methods.[16] He has received national, statewide, and local awards for his teaching.[17][18]
Doran was chair of the TCU Mathematics Department for 21 years (1990–2011). In 1986 he was elected to the board of trustees the Association of Members of the Institute for Advanced Study.[13] He was president of the association for 10 years (1990-1999). Doran has been an editor for Cambridge University Press since 1988.[19] He has also organized many American Mathematical Society special sessions and conferences for CBMS, the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences. His first such conference was held at TCU in 1970 with Paul Halmos as principal speaker.[20] The most recent conference was held at TCU, June 2011 with Phillip Griffiths, former Director of the Institute for Advanced Study as principal speaker.
Approximate identities and factorization in Banach modules, vol. 768, (with J. Wichmann), Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York 1979. ISBN3-540-09725-2
Representations of *-algebras, locally compact groups, and Banach *-algebraic bundles, 125, vol. I, (with J. M. G. Fell), Academic Press, 1988. ISBN0-12-252721-6[23]
Representations of *-algebras, locally compact groups, and Banach *-algebraic bundles, 126, vol. II, (with J. M. G. Fell), Academic Press, 1988. ISBN0-12-252722-4[23]
Self-adjoint and non-self-adjoint operator algebras and operator theory, (ed.) vol. 120, Contemporary Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 1990. ISBN0-8218-5127-6
Automorphic forms, automorphjic representations and arithmetic. I. (ed. with Z. Dou and G. Gilbert), 66, vol. 1, Symposia for Pure Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 1999. ISBN0-8218-1050-2
Automorphic forms, automorphjic representations and arithmetic. II. (ed. with Z. Dou and G. Gilbert), 66, vol. 2, Symposia forPure Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 1999. ISBN0-8218-1051-0
Operator algebras, quantization, and non-commutative geometry, (ed. with R. V. Kadison), vol. 365, Contemporary Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 2004. ISBN0-8218-3402-9
Group representations, ergodic theory and mathematical physics, (ed. with C. C. Moore and R. J. Zimmer), vol. 449, Contemporary Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 2008. ISBN978-0-8218-4225-6
Superstrings, geometry, topology, and C*-algebras, (ed. with G. Friedman and J. Rosenberg), vol. 81, Symposia for Pure Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 2010. ISBN978-0-8218-4887-6
Harmonic analysis and reductive p-adic groups, (ed. with P. J. Sally and L. Spice), vol. 543, Contemporary Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 2011. ISBN978-0-8218-4985-9
Hodge theory, complex geometry, and representation theory, (ed. with G. Friedman and S. Nollet), vol. 608, Contemporary Mathematics, American Mathematical Society in 2014. ISBN978-0-8218-9415-6
Operator algebras and their applications: A tribute to Richard V. Kadison, (ed. with E. Park), vol. 671, Contemporary Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 2016. ISBN978-1-4704-1948-6
In addition to research articles and books, Doran has published over 540 reviews for the Mathematical Reviews.[24]
^Doran, Robert (1972). "A Generalization of a theorem of Civin and Yood". Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society. 4: 25–26. doi:10.1112/blms/4.1.25.
^Doran, R. S. (1972). "A generalization of a theorem of Civin and Yood". Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society. 4: 25–26. doi:10.1112/blms/4.1.25.
^ ab"National Teaching Awards to Mathematicians". Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 37 (1). January 1990.
^Dean, R. G. (1995). A seventy-five year history of the Texas section of the Mathematical Association of America 1920-1995. Abilene: Conley Printing Company. pp. 165–168. ISBN0964525100.
^Dean, R. G. (1995). A seventy-five year history of the Texas section of the Mathematical Association of America 1920-1995. Conley Printing Company. pp. 165–168. ISBN0964525100.
^"Doran is Piper Professor for 1989". Texas Christian University Weekly. 65 (32). May 1989.
^"Foundation Agrees: Doran is Superior". This is TCU Magazine. 32 (2): 5. May 1989.
^"Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Teaching". This is TCU Magazine. 31 (4): 4. December 1988.