Mark Kac 1914--1984 (Q1819809)

Pages 1103-1154 of Vol. 14 of Annals of Probability are devoted to the life and work of Mark Kac (1914-1984). They contain an article by \textit{Harry Kesten} (a former Ph.D. student of Kac's) titled ''The influence of Mark Kac on probability theory.'' (1103-1128), a paper by \textit{Colin J. Thompson} on ''The contributions of Mark Kac to mathematical physics.'' (1129-1138), and a review titled ''A life of the immeasurable mind.'' of Kac's autobiography (Enigmas of chance) by \textit{Joel E. Cohen} (1138- 1148), followed by a six page list of Kac's publications. Kestens' paper is divided into five sections representing a division of Kac's work into five categories, viz. 1. Probabilistic aspects of gap series and probabilistic number theory. 2. Interplay between probability theory and analysis. 3. Potential theory. 4. Limit theorems and invariance principles. 5. Feynman-Kac formula. Each section introduces, reviews and explains Kac's contributions and puts them in a historical perspective; quite an achievement. The paper ends with a list of 84 references (many multiple) to papers related to those of Kac. Since part of the work that could be called mathematical physics is discussed in the first paper, Thompson restricts himself to Kac's contributions to statistical mechanics. The author, who has known Mark Kac well, gives detailed accounts of the genesis of some of the results, which are both interesting and entertaining. There are ten references. The third contribution is a ten page summary of Kac's autobiography. Of course, it cannot replace reading the book itself, but it makes interesting reading for those who don't have time to read ''Enigmas of change.'' for themselves. The papers are supplemented by an impressive list of Kac's publications, numbering 184 titles and spanning a period of 54 years. The only thing one could be interested in and does not find here is a list of Kac's Ph.D. students and the subjects of their theses.