Thomas Wolff; Math Professor at Caltech

Thomas Wolff, 46, an influential mathematics professor at Caltech whose work helped explain the physical world. Wolff made many contributions to a number of mathematical fields, including number theory. He also worked on several problems involving quantum mechanics, a field that explains the function of matter at the subatomic level. The New York native earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1975 and received his doctorate in mathematics from UC Berkeley. Afterward, he was an acting assistant professor at the University of Washington. He joined Caltech as an assistant professor in 1982 and was named a full professor in 1986. He left soon after, however, to work at New York University and then Berkeley before returning to Caltech in 1995. Wolff was a member of the editorial boards of three publications: Communications in Analysis and Geometry, AMS Electronic Journal of Research Announcements and the Journal of Functional Analysis. He died Monday of injuries suffered in a Kern County car crash.