Temple University

Department of Mathematics

The 1998 Steele Prize for Research awarded to Herbert S. Wilf and Doron Zeilberger.

The Council of American Mathematical Society awarded the 1998 Leroy P. Steele Prize for a Seminal Contribution to Research to Herbert S. Wilf and Doron Zeilberger for their paper Rational functions certify combinatorial identities, Journal of American Mathematical Society 3 (1990), 147-158. This award was presented at the one hundred and fourth annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Baltimore, Maryland on January 8, 1998. This paper, according to the American Mathematical Society, has led to an explosion of activity in computer-aided proofs of combinatorial identities, such as those involving hypergeometric series and q-series.

Doron with Donald Knuth

The Leroy P. Steele Prizes were established in 1970 in honor of George David Birkhoff, William Fogg Osgood, and William Caspar Graustein, and are endowed under the terms of a bequest amounting to $145,000 from Leroy P. Steele. The Steele Prize for a Seminal Contribution to Research is awarded for a paper, whether recent or not, that has proved to be of fundamental or lasting importance in its field or a model of important research. (The URL for a list of past recipients is http://www.ams.org/ams/prizes.html.)

In a response statement, Zeilberger said:

"WZ theory has taught me that computers, by themselves, are not yet capable of creating the most beautiful mathematics. Conversely, humans do much better mathematics in collaboration with computers. More generally, combining different and sometimes opposite approaches and viewpoints will lead to revolutions. So the moral is: Don't look down on any activity as inferior, because two ugly parents can have beautiful children, and a narrow-minded or elitist attitude will lead nowhere."
He also thanked all his collaborators and mentioned his main influencers some of whom are: Devorah Segev, his seventh grade math teacher, Joe Gillis, who in his early teens first made him into a mathematician through his 'Gilyonot le Matematika', his advisor Harry Dym who initiated him into research, his god-advisor Dick Duffin who discretized him, Leon Ehrenpreis who dualized him, Gian-Carlo Rota who umbralized him, Dick Askey who hypergeometrized him, George Andrews who q-fied him, Herb Wilf who combinatorized him, and Dominique Faota who bijectified him.

George Andrews said the following about the method of Wilf and Zeilberger.

"In my proof of Capparelli's conjecture, I was completely guided by the Wilf-Zeilberger method, even if I didn't use Doron's program explicitly. I couldn't have produced my proof without knowing the principle behind "WZ". It is a really powerful result and does indeed merit the Steele Prize."

We congratulate Doron on a momentous achievement that will bring further pride and prestige to our department.

By Shif Berhanu and Melkamu Zeleke

H. Wilf receiving his prize while Doron looks on