Stephen Sidney Shatz, an emeritus professor of mathematics in the School of Arts & Sciences, died in July. He was 86.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Shatz attended P.S. 103 and then Montauk Junior High School before heading to Stuyvesant High School, the New York City honors high school. He attended Harvard University in 1953, beginning at age 16, and earned an undergraduate degree in physics and then a PhD in mathematics with a dissertation on “The Cohomology of Artinian Group Schemes Over Local Fields” under the direction of John Torrence Tate, Jr. 

Dr. Shatz was an instructor and then an acting assistant professor at Stanford University from 1962 to 1964. He then came to Penn, where he rose from assistant professor to associate professor in 1967 before becoming a full professor in 1969. He retired in 2006 and took emeritus status. 

During his time at Penn, he chaired the mathematics department from 1983 to 1986. He also served on the Faculty Grants and Awards subcommittee on University Council. He wrote a Benchmarks piece celebrating the history of mathematics at Penn (Almanac December 7, 1999) and a timeline of 250 years of math at Penn (Almanac October 26, 1999). Following his retirement, Dr. Shatz continued to conduct mathematical research and teach. During this period, he developed a collaboration with Jean Gallier of the department of computer and information science, producing manuscripts on algebra, algebraic geometry, and complex algebraic geometry.

His career took him to conferences around the world, including Moscow in the 1960s and Bonn, Germany, as late as the 2000s. He was a visiting professor at the University of Pisa in Italy from 1966 to 1967, a member of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (now the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute) in Berkeley, California, from 1986 to 1987, and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1997.

A longtime member of the American Mathematical Society, Dr. Shatz served as editor of the transactions of the society, on the society’s council, and on the executive committee of the council. He is the author of numerous works in mathematics, including Profinite Groups, Arithmetic, and Geometry (Volume 67, Annals of Mathematical Studies, Princeton University Press, 1972), and a variety of journal articles.

Dr. Shatz is survived by two children, Geoffrey Shatz (Kristin) and Aviva; and three grandchildren, Richard, Max, and Zane. In lieu of flowers, please make any donations in his honor to the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.