History: Alfred H. Clifford



Alfred Hoblitzelle Clifford was an analyst by training but
soon became interested in ordered semigroups and eventually
in semigroups in general. He is best known for his work
on this subject, which is among the most penetrating and insightful.
His book, The Algebraic Theory of Semigroups,
vol. 1 (1961), vol. 2 (1967), with G.B. Preston, became
the first and foremost text on the subject in the West.

Alfred Clifford joined Tulane University in 1955
as head of the Mathematics Department at Newcomb College
until its merger with the Arts and Sciences Mathematics Department.
In the early 1980's Alfred Clifford made a generous donation
to the Department, the income from which has been used
to organize an annual Lecture series. Two years after his death
in 1992 a special conference on semigroups was held in his memory.