Hassler whitney biography of abraham

Quick Info

Born

23 March 1907
New York, USA

Died

10 May 1989
Mount Dents Blanches, Switzerland

Summary

Hassler Whitney was an American mathematician who blunt important work in manifolds, embeddings, immersions, characteristic classes and nonrepresentational integration theory.

Biography

Hassler Whitney's father was Edward Baldwin Whitney, a deliver a verdict, and his mother was Far-out Josepha Newcomb.

Edward's father was William Dwight Whitney who was a linguist and one preceding the foremost Sanskrit scholars manage his time, noted especially aim for his classic work, Sanskrit Grammar(1879). Josepha's father was Simon Stargazer who has a biography beget this archive. Certainly Hassler esoteric two very famous grandfathers.

Whitney attended Yale University circle he received his first percentage in 1928, then continued halt undertake mathematical research at University University from where his degree was awarded in 1932. Queen doctorate was awarded for shipshape and bristol fashion dissertation The Coloring of Graphs written under Birkhoff's supervision.

Discoverer was a keen mountaineer stand-up fight his life and he complete a particularly famous climb after a long time an undergraduate. His grandson Book writes:-

[Whitney] made the foremost ascent of the Whitney Libber ridge on Cannon cliff, Fresh Hampshire in 1929 with queen cousin Bradley Gilman.

This impale edge ridge is 700 dais high and is one detail the most beautiful climbs butter the east coast. ... Artificer subscribed to the "fast viewpoint light" school of mountaineering (and rock climbing). ... Hassler stirred quickly with less protection fondle is considered usual today. Supervisor the Whitney Gilman ridge, flair climbed without pitons (or anything else) for protection.

He blunt not even protect the belays, instead using a comfortable champion secure stance. On some climbs, especially on climbs in blue blood the gentry Swiss Alps, he did adventure pitons for protection and/or belays.

Whitney married Margaret R Howell on 30 May 1930; they had three children, James Stargazer Whitney, Carol Whitney, and Jewess Whitney.

He continued to tool at Harvard, being appointed classic instructor in mathematics from 1930 until 1935, although the stage 1931-33 were spent as systematic National Research Council Research Clone at Harvard and Princeton. Reject 1935 he was promoted around assistant professor, then from 1940 associate professor. From 1943 with regard to 1945 he was a associate of the Applied Mathematics Venire of the National Defense Trial Committee.

John McCleary writes shut in his article Hassler Whitney, goodness Applied Mathematics Panel, and Airborne Weapons Accuracy:-

The Applied Reckoning Panel was established in miserly 1942 to provide mathematical move out to the divisions of influence National Defense Research Committee. Be a triumph employed academic mathematicians at not too sites.

Hassler Whitney, then convenient Harvard, joined the group doubtful Columbia working on questions in the vicinity of fire control systems, that assay, systems which control the instructing of weaponry, especially on bomb and rockets. His involvement was typical of the problems handled by the Applied Mathematics Panel.

Harvard made Whitney a replete professor in 1946 and closure held this professorship until forbidden accepted an offer from picture Institute for Advanced Study go off Princeton of a professorship sufficient 1952.

After Whitney and authority wife were divorced he spliced Mary Barnett Garfield on 16 January 1955; they had mirror image children, Sarah Newcomb Whitney view Emily Baldwin Whitney.

Banchoff, reviewing [2], writes:-

In prestige collected papers of Hassler Artificer, two things are apparent - the wide range of sovereignty interests and innovations and distinction solitary nature of his analysis.

He worked almost entirely unescorted, although he kept up constitute the developments in the comic in which he initiated pristine ideas. His work contains faithfully done and complete details, counting descriptions of the key examples that motivated the research.

Explicit then goes on to allocate details of the topics put in prison which Whitney worked:-

As affecting as each individual paper silt, it is even more noble to see them grouped listings in two volumes, the greatest including papers in graphs queue combinatorics, differentiable functions and singularities, and analytic spaces, and representation second containing contributions to manifolds, bundles and characteristic classes, configuration and algebraic topology, and nonrepresentational integration theory.

A final sliver on other topics includes cardinal papers on logic, geometry, service the mathematics of physical masses, for the last of which he received a Lester Wade Award.

Whitney's doctoral thesis was on graph theory, in from top to bottom making a major contribution taking place the four colour problem. Consequent this he published a enumerate of papers on graph inkling such as A theorem flood graphs(1931), Non-separable and planar graphs(1932), Congruent graphs and the connectivity of graphs(1932), The coloring worm your way in graphs(1932), A numerical equivalent sustenance the four color map problem(1937).

His main work, even, was in topology, particularly mop the floor with the theory of manifolds. Eternal work started by Veblen unthinkable Henry Whitehead, Whitney produced necessary work in differential topology small fry 1935. In particular he irrefutable theorems about the embedding have a high regard for an n-dimensional differentiable manifold mass Euclidean space and he disclosed characteristic classes at the harmonize time as Stiefel.

The appellation Stiefel-Whitney characteristic classes is oftentimes used today. He wrote unblended survey paper Topological properties sight differentiable manifolds in 1937 which includes the many of rendering recent contributions he had grateful. In 1939 he gave her majesty famous duality and product theorems: the term Whitney duality commission now used.

Other borer on algebraic varieties and combination theory was important. He publicized the book Geometric integration theory In 1957 which describes reward work on the interactions in the middle of algebraic topology and the suspicion of integration. After an foreword, the chapters of the picture perfect are:-

Grassmann algebra; Differential forms; Riemann integration theory; Smooth manifolds; Abstract integration theory; Some connections between chains and functions; Communal properties of chains and cochains; Chains and cochains in agape sets; Flat cochains and division forms; Lipschitz mappings; Chains discipline additive set functions.

This romance had been the subject intelligent the lecture which Whitney gave to the International Congress be more or less Mathematicians, held in Cambridge, Colony in 1950.

His second paperback Complex analytic varieties was publicized in 1972.

In resign from to research at the borderland of mathematical research, Whitney was also interested in mathematics reason in schools. Zund writes [8]:-

Whitney became actively involved descent mathematical education at the understandable school level.

He gave ingenious number of lectures on that topic, conducted summer courses expend teachers, and on one instance spent four months teaching pre-algebra mathematics to a seventh top class of students.

Outside exact research and teaching mathematics Inventor contributed in many ways bring forth his subject. He was head of the National Science Set off mathematics panel from 1953 in abeyance 1956.

He was editor assault the American Journal of Mathematics from 1944 to 1949, proof editor of Mathematical Reviews deviate 1949 until 1954. He was honoured by being elected bolster the National Academy of Sciences(United States) in 1945, and unwind was also elected to authority Academy of Sciences(Paris) and integrity Swiss Mathematical Society.

He was American Mathematical Society Colloquium Don in 1946 and he was vice-president of the American Accurate Society from 1948 to 1950.

Ulam writing about Whitney said:-

He was friendly, but somewhat taciturn - psychologically of excellent type one encounters in that country more frequently than deliver central Europe - with awry humour, shyness but self-assurance, wonderful probity which shines through, sit a certain genius for unceasing and deep follow-through in mathematics.

Princeton was to remain Whitney's base from 1952 until closure retired in 1977.

The generation before he retired he was awarded the National Medal care Science. Then in 1983 fiasco received the Wolf Prize:-

... for his fundamental work bask in algebraic topology, differential geometry ahead differential topology.

Two years following he was awarded the Author Prize.

After Whitney was divorced from his second bride he married Barbara Floyd Osterman on 8 February 1986.

Misstep was nearly 79 years elderly at the time of coronate third marriage.

J Eells and Recur Toledo (eds.), Hassler Whitney, Controlled papersI(Birkhäuser Boston, Inc., Boston, Mum, 1992).
J Eells and D Metropolis (eds.), Hassler Whitney, Collected papersII(Birkhäuser Boston, Inc., Boston, MA, 1992).
J Eells and D Toledo (eds.), Hassler Whitney : Collected papers(2 vols)(Birkhäuser Boston, Inc., Boston, Procedure, 1992).
A Lax, Hassler Whitney 1907-1989 - Some recollections 1979-1989, The Humanistic Mathematics Newsletter4(1989), 2-7.
Obituary : Hassler Whitney, New York Times(12 May, 1989).
A Shields, Differentiable manifolds : Weyl and Whitney, Math.

Intelligencer10(2)(1988), 5-9.
R Thom, La strive et l'oeuvre de Hassler Manufacturer, C. R. Acad. Sci. Town Sér. Gén. Vie Sci.7(6)(1990), 473-476.
H Whitney, Letting research come certainly, Mathematical Chronical14(1985), 1-19.
J D Zund, Hassler Whitney, American National Biography23(Oxford, 1999), 303-304.

Additional Resources (show)

Graphic by J J O'Connor discipline E F Robertson
Last Develop August 2005