Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

205 results found

Kitaj, R. B.

(Encyclopedia)Kitaj, R. B. (Ronald Brooks Kitaj) kĭtīˈ [key], 1932–2007, American painter, b. Chagrin Falls, Ohio. In 1958 he moved to London, where he attended the Ruskin School, Oxford, and the Royal College...

Fermat, Pierre de

(Encyclopedia)Fermat, Pierre de pyĕr də fĕrmäˈ [key], 1601–65, French mathematician. A magistrate whose avocation was mathematics, Fermat is known as a founder of modern number theory and probability theory....

Getz, Stan

(Encyclopedia)Getz, Stan, 1927–91, American jazz tenor saxophonist, b. Philadelphia, as Stanley Gayetsky. As a mature musician he was especially known for his “cool” jazz style. He began playing as a teenager...

Alferov, Zhores Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Alferov, Zhores Ivanovich, 1930–2019, Russian physicist, b. Vitebsk (now in Belarus), Ph.D. V. I. Ulyanov Electrotechnical Institute, 1952. He joined the research staff of the A. F. Ioffe Physico-Te...

Santa Rosa, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Santa Rosa sănˈtə rōˈzə [key], city (1990 pop. 113,313), seat of Sonoma co., W Calif.; inc. 1868. It is an industrial city and a retail, financial, and medical center for the fertile Sonoma Vall...

Greider, Carol Widney

(Encyclopedia)Greider, Carol Widney, 1961–, American molecular biologist, b. San Diego, Calif., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1987. Greider was a researcher and professor at the Cold Spring Harbor Laborato...

George, Saint

(Encyclopedia)George, Saint, 4th cent.?, perhaps a soldier in the imperial army who died for the faith in Asia Minor. His life is cloaked in legends; Gibbon's identification of him with George of Cappadocia is fals...

jay

(Encyclopedia)jay, common name for a number of birds of the family Corvidae (crows and jays), found in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The best-known representatives in America are the blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata...

Durham, John George Lambton, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Durham, John George Lambton, 1st earl of dûrˈ əm [key], 1792–1840, British statesman. A stormy liberal career in Parliament (1813–32), which earned him the nickname Radical Jack, culminated in ...

Clancy, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Clancy, Tom (Thomas Leo Clancy, Jr.), 1947–2013, American popular novelist, b. Baltimore, grad. Loyola Univ. Maryland (B.A., 1969). While working as an insurance agent he wrote The Hunt for Red Octo...