The Gergen Lectures

Gergen Lectures

Once or twice a year, the department sponsors the Gergen Lectures, named in honor of Professor John J. Gergen (1903-1967) and former Chariman of the department.  Recent lecture series have been given by:

Biographical Sketch of John Gergen

John Jay Gergen was born at St. Paul, Minnesota on April 17, 1903. He received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1925 and a Ph.D. from Rice in 1928. From 1928 to 1930, as a National Research fellow, he visited Princton, Oxford, the University of Paris and the University of Clermont. From 1930 to 1933 he was a Benjamin Pierce Instructor at Harvard, and from 1933 to 1936 he was an assistant professor at the University of Rochester. He came as an associate professor to Duke in 1936, was promoted to professor in 1939, and served as chairman of the department from 1937 to July 1966, when he resigned the chairmanship owing to illness (esophagal cancer). He was also acting director of the mathematical sciences division of the Office of Ordnance Research, U. S. Army, from 1951 to 1961. Professor Gergen was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. His mathematical interests were in analysis, particularly differential equations. Professor Gergen married Aubigne Munger Lermond on June 11, 1931. They had four children: John Andrew, Kenneth Jay, Stephen Lermond, and David Richmond. He died at Duke Hospital in January 1967.
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Last modified: December 4, 2000