Alfred Gray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfred Gray (October 22, 1939 – October 27, 1998) was an American mathematician whose main research interests were in differential geometry. He equally contributed to fields as complex variables and differential equations.

In the broad area of differential geometry, he made specific contributions in classifying various types of geometrical structures (Kähler manifolds, almost Hermitian manifolds). Gray introduced the concept of nearly Kähler manifold, gave topological obstructions to the existence of geometrical structures, made several contributions in the computation of the volume of tubes and balls, curvature identities, etc. He published a book on tubes and is the author of two textbooks and over one hundred scientific articles. His books were translated in Spanish, Italian, Russian and German). He was a pioneer of using computer graphics in teaching differential geometry (particularly the geometry of curves and surfaces) and of using electronic computation in teaching both differential geometry and ordinary differential equations.

[edit] Short biography

Alfred Gray was born in Dallas, Texas and studied mathematics at the University of Kansas. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1964 and spent four years at University of California, Berkeley. He was (1970–1998) a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.

He died at Bilbao, in Spain, of consequences of a heart attack which occurred while working with students in a computer lab at 4 a.m., on October 27, 1998.