Sheldon Axler

Sheldon Jay Axler (born November 6, 1949, Philadelphia) is an American mathematician and textbook author.

He is a professor of mathematics and the Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at San Francisco State University.

He obtained his AB in mathematics with highest honors at Princeton University (1971) and his PhD in mathematics, under professor Donald Sarason, from the University of California, Berkeley, with the dissertation "Subalgebras of

In 1997, Axler moved to San Francisco State University, where he became the chair of the Mathematics Department.

Axler received the Lester R. Ford Award for expository writing in 1996 from the Mathematical Association of America for a paper titled "Down with Determinants!"