I
Communications in Mathematical Physics
An Odyssey:
from Volume
to Volume 64, Number 1 (December 22, 1978)
to Volume 212, Number 3 (August 2000).
I served on the editorial board of Communications in Mathematical Physics for 25 years, including 22 years as Chief Editor. Rudolf Haag and Res Jost dreamt of this journal and created it with Springer-Verlag in 1965. Haag became the original Chief Editor (1965-1773), followed by Klaus Hepp (1973-1976) and James Glimm (1976-1978). I took over as the fourth Chief Editor (1978-2000) with the appearance of Volume 64, Number 1 on December 22, 1978. Only recently did I realize that this issue actually appeared in print on my 41st birthday! Michael Aizenman followed my tenure in September 2000.
Throughout my tenure as Chief Editor, I worked with a wonderful team at Springer. Professor Wolf Beiglböck served as the liaison between I am grateful throughout that time to the leadership of Wolf Beiglbock. Not only do I cherish his friendship, but Wolf complemented his position as Professor at the University of Heidelberg by being a constant advocate for the community of mathematical physics within Springer-Verlag.
One of the first things I did as chief editor was to suggest to Wolf that we invite Res Jost to edit a special issue of C.M.P., dedicated to the 60th birthday of Rudolf Haag. This appeared as Volume 85, Number 1, and was published on August 17, 1982. A few months afterward, Rudolf visited Cambridge to give a seminar. We took this opportunity to hold a small dinner to commenorate the occasion with a few friends of Rudolf. We met in what used to be the private dining room of the Harvest Restaurant. (At the time, this was arguably the best restaurant in Cambridge, located in a building designed by the architect Ben Thompson, and owned by Thompson as well.)
On that (historic?) occasion, I presented to Rudolf a leather-bound copy of Volume 85.1. From left to right you see: Joan Glashow, Barbara Haag, Rudolf Haag, Sheldon Glashow, Arthur Jaffe, Barbara Drauschke, Raoul Bott, Phillis Bott, Klaus Hepp, Konrad Osterwalder, and Walter Kaufmann-Bühler (who served as the scientific liaison in the New York office of Springer-Verlag).
Shortly afterward, I wrote Konrad Springer about this gathering, a carbon copy of which was in my file and shows the message:
