In Memoriam: Tilla Weinstein

In Memoriam

Tilla Weinstein

Professor Emerita, Rutgers University

b. ? - d. 22 January 2002

Tilla Weinstein died on Tuesday, January 22, 2002. The apparent cause was a cerebral hemorrhage. She is survived by her sons, David and Daniel Klotz, and her husband, Kive Weinstein.

Tilla had retired in December 2000 from Rutgers University, where she had been Professor of Mathematics since 1970. Before coming to Rutgers, she held positions at Boston College (1969-70) and at UCLA (1960-69). She earned her Ph.D. at New York University, with Lipman Bers as advisor. During her active career she held visiting positions at NYU, MIT, IAS in Princeton, the University of Maryland, the CUNY Graduate Center, and MSRI in Berkeley.

Among Tilla's many contributions to the mathematical community was activity in the Association for Women in Mathematics, the Mathematical Association of America, and the American Mathematical Society. She served on the AWM Noether Lecturer Selection Committee (1994-96), the Joint Committee on Women in the Mathematical Sciences (1993-96), and the AWM Executive Committee (1998-2001). Her C.V. lists many talks in the US and in other countries and over 40 books, papers and contributions to conference proceedings. She supervised the doctoral dissertations of four students in the area of Lorentz surfaces: Robert Smyth, Naomi Klarreich, Luke Higgins, and Senchun Lin.

Tilla and Kive Weinstein

Tilla contributed extensively and effectively to the governance of the Department of Mathematics and of the University. She was lead author of the crucial committee report leading to the reorganization of separate college faculties into a single university faculty. This reorganization reduced the disparities in the treatment of women faculty by the different units. Her astute comments helped to resolve any number of policy issues that might otherwise have led to interminable debate. When each Rutgers department was required to draft an explicit policy against sexual harassment, Tilla pointed out that it would be better to address the issue from the point of view of avoiding inappropriate abuse of authority rather than from the point of view of defining limits on the social lives of students and faculty. Her drafting committee brought back a document that the department adopted unanimously.

Tilla was smart, disciplined, wise, honest and compassionate. She was, and will remain, a role model.

Amy Cohen
Rutgers University

S. Geller, T. Weinstein, and friend

reprinted from the AWM Newsletter, March/April 2002, Volume 32, Number 2, pp. 2-3.