Logic List Mailing Archive

Gerald Sacks (1933-2019)

Gerald E. Sacks, my thesis advisor, died October 4 at the age of 86, after 
a long illness. He was a pioneer in recursion theory, and is particularly 
noted for his celebrated Sacks Density Theorem (there is an r.e. degree 
strictly between any two different comparable r.e. degrees) and Sacks 
forcing (forcing with perfect trees, which he used to construct models of 
ZFC with a minimal degree of nonconstructibility).

Gerald was honored In 1994, when the Association of Symbolic Logic 
established the Sacks Prize in his name, which is awarded annually for the 
most outstanding doctoral dissertation in mathematical logic.

Gerald supervised over 30 students, several of whom are among the most 
visible logicians in the world.

Harvey Friedman

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https://obituaries.pressherald.com/obituaries/mainetoday-pressherald/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=194098341

Gerald E. Sacks, 86, a professor emeritus of mathematics at M.I.T. and 
Harvard, died Oct. 4, 2019, at his home in Falmouth, after a long illness. 
He was born in Brooklyn N.Y., and attended Brooklyn Technical High School. 
He interrupted his college studies at Cornell University to serve in the 
U.S. Army from 1953-1956 and returned to Cornell where he received his 
Ph.D. in 1961. His work in recursion theory helped to shape the 
development of the subject over the past 50 years. In 1994 the Association 
of Symbolic Logic established the Sacks Prize which is awarded annually to 
the most outstanding doctoral dissertation in mathematical logic that 
year.

Survivors include his wife, Margaret D. Philbrick; his four children, 
Matthew S. Sacks, Natalie R. Sacks M.D., Paul M. Sacks, and Ella 
Raposo-Sacks; three step-children, John W. Philbrick, Katherine P. 
Vorenberg, and Louise Philbrick; five grandchildren, Jacob S. MacGregor, 
Daniel, Kevin, and Harrison Philbrick, and Emma R. Vorenberg; and his 
brother, Michael H. Sacks M.D. A memorial service will be held in the 
spring of 2020.

The family asks that any contributions be made to the Portland Symphony 
Orchestra or the Hospice of Southern Maine.
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