Jesse Douglas (New York, July 3, 1897 - September 7, 1965) was an American mathematician. He was born in New York from Jewish immigrants from Russia. He visited Columbia College at Columbia University from 1920-1924.
Douglas was one of the first two winners of the Fields medals in 1936. He was honored for his solution in 1930, of the Plateau issue, which asks whether there is a minimum area for a given boundary. The problem, opened since 1760 when Lagrange formulated it for the first time, is part of the variation account and is also known as the bubble problem. Douglas also contributed significantly to the inverse problem of Lagrangian mechanics.
From the American Mathematical Society, he received the Bôcher Prize in 1943. Working
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