José Escobar, Cornell mathematics professor, dies at age 49

ITHACA, N.Y. — José F. (Chepe) Escobar, professor of mathematics at Cornell University, died from cancer Jan. 3 while on sabbatical leave in Colombia. He was 49.

Escobar was a world-renowned expert in the field of differential geometry, the study of geometric problems using methods of differential equations.

He was born in Manizales, Colombia, on Dec. 20, 1954, and was educated in Colombia, Brazil and the United States, obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986.

In his doctoral thesis, Escobar solved an important problem, the boundary Yamabe problem, showing how to give a natural structure to all possible geometric realizations of manifolds with boundary (the higher dimensional analog of surfaces in space bounded by curves). The problem had previously been solved for manifolds without boundary (the analog of spheres, or the surface of a donut), but the presence of a boundary required many new ideas and led to a great flowering of research by mathematicians around the world. Escobar contributed more than 30 papers and books in this and related areas of mathematics.

He joined the Cornell faculty on July 1, 1994. Previously he had taught at Indiana University, the University of Chicago and Courant Institute of New York University. He also was a visiting professor at Instituto de Matemáticas Puras y Aplicadas in Rio de Janeiro, Warwick University in England, the Mittag Leffler Institute in Djursholm, Sweden, and the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in France. Among his numerous academic honors and awards were an Alfred P. Sloan Dissertation Fellowship (1985-86) and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship in pure mathematics (1992-97).

At Cornell, Escobar was a thesis adviser to many graduate students and a mentor to several postdoctoral associates. He also was deeply involved in encouraging mathematical development in South American countries and in helping the Cornell mathematics department recruit many Latin American graduate students.

As a young man, he was a competitive diver and became the national champion of Colombia. He also was an avid soccer player and salsa dancer.

He had his first bout with cancer while he was in graduate school, and despite a pessimistic diagnosis from his doctors he made a total recovery. His colleagues note that this experience helped shape his personality, making him a man of great strength, compassion, and optimism.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, February 16, at 4 p.m. at Anabel Taylor Hall on the Cornell campus.

Last modified: February 2, 2004