Tobias Dantzig (/ˈdæntsɪɡ/; February 19, 1884 – August 9, 1956) was an American mathematician, the father of George Dantzig, and the author of Number: The Language of Science (A critical survey written for the cultured non-mathematician) (1930) and Aspects of Science (New York, Macmillan, 1937).
Born in Shavli[1][2] (then Imperial Russia, now Lithuania) into the family of Shmuel Dantzig (?-1940) and Guta Dimant (1863–1917), he grew up in Łódź and studied mathematics with Henri Poincaré in Paris.[3] His brother Jacob (1891-1942) was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust; he also had a brother Naftali (who lived in Moscow) and sister Emma.
Tobias married a fellow Sorbonne University student, Anja Ourisson, and the couple emigrated to the United States in 1910. He worked for a time as a lumberjack, road worker, and house painter in Oregon, until returning to academia at the encouragement of Reed College mathematician Frank Griffin.[3] Dantzig received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University in 1917, while working as a professor there.[3][4] He later taught at Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, and the University of Maryland.
Dantzig died in Los Angeles in 1956. He was the father of George Dantzig, a key figure in the development of linear programming.
