Murray A. Marshall, 24.3.1940–1.05.2015 A Brief Mathematical Obituary

Abstract

On April 22 2015, Murray Marshall was invited by Igor Klep and Victor Vinnikov to talk in the special session on "Operator Theory, Real Algebraic Geometry, and Moment Problems" that they co-organised for IWOTA 2015 in Tbilisi, Georgia, July 6--10. This invitation to an IWOTA edition was considered by the organisers as long overdue, given Marshall's important contributions to Real Algebraic Geometry in general, and to the multi-dimensional Moment Problem in particular. Marshall declined on April 27th writing: "Dear Victor, Thanks very much for the invitation. I am sorry but I must decline. The reason is that I don't enjoy traveling as much as I used to. North America or Europe is about the maximum distance I am willing to dealwith. I hope you are well. Murray." This response startled us, as Marshall has always been a grand traveler when it came to mathematics. Our fears were alas confirmed; Marshall passed away just a few days later. In July, I held a talk at that session myself on joint work with Marshall, and was asked by the editors of the proceedings volume to write this mathematical obituary.