George Mostow
| George Mostow | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 4, 1923 |
| Died | April 4, 2017 (aged 93) |
| Nationality | American |
| Institutions |
Syracuse University Johns Hopkins University Yale University |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Thesis | The Extensibility of Local Lie Groups of Transformations and Groups on Surfaces (1948) |
| Doctoral advisor | Garrett Birkhoff |
| Known for |
Mostow's rigidity theorem Mostow–Palais theorem |
| Notable awards |
Wolf Prize (2013) Leroy P. Steele Prize (1993) |
George Daniel Mostow (July 4, 1923 – April 4, 2017) was an American mathematician, renowned for his contributions to Lie theory. He was the Henry Ford II (emeritus) Professor of Mathematics at Yale University, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the 49th President of the American Mathematical Society (1987–1988), and former Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.[1]
The rigidity phenomenon for lattices in Lie groups he discovered and explored is known as Mostow rigidity. His work on rigidity played an essential role in the work of three Fields medalists, namely Grigori Margulis, William Thurston, and Grigori Perelman. He served as a Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1982 to 1992. In 1993 he was awarded the AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research. In 2013, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics for his "for his fundamental and pioneering contribution to geometry and Lie group theory."[2]
Biography
George (Dan) Mostow was born in 1923. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1948. His academic appointments had been at Syracuse University from 1949 to 1952, at Johns Hopkins University from 1952 to 1961 and at Yale University from 1961 until his retirement in 1999. Mostow was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1974, served as the President of the American Mathematical Society in 1987 and 1988, and was a Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. from 1982 to 1992. He was awarded the AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research in 1993 for his book Strong rigidity of locally symmetric spaces (1973).[3] He died on April 4, 2017.
See also
References
- Science 20 October 1978: Vol. 202. no. 4365, pp. 297–298.
- Pierre Deligne and Daniel Mostow, Commensurabilities among lattices in PU(1,n). Annals of Mathematics Studies, 132. Princeton University Press, 1993 ISBN 0-691-00096-4
- Roger Howe, editor, Discrete groups in geometry and analysis. Papers in Honor of G. D. Mostow on His Sixtieth Birthday (Conference held at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, March 23–25, 1986), Progress in Mathematics, Vol. 67. Birkhäuser, Boston–Basel–Stuttgart ISBN 0-8176-3301-4
- George Mostow, Strong rigidity of locally symmetric spaces, Annals of Mathematics Studies, no. 78, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973
- Alexander Lubotzky, Tannaka duality for discrete groups. American Journal of Mathematics Vol. 102, pp. 663 – 689, 1980
- ↑ "In Memoriam: George Daniel Mostow 1923-2017". Yale University. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
- ↑ The Wolf Foundation – "Prof. George Mostow Winner of Wolf Prize in Mathematics - 2013"
- ↑ Helgason, Sigurdur (1975). "Review: Strong rigidity of locally symmetric spaces, by G. D. Mostow". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 81 (3, Part 1): 509–514. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1975-13726-8.
External links
- AMS Presidents: A Timeline at the American Mathematical Society website.
- George Mostow at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- Enlightenment at a red traffic light: Wolf Prize laureate Prof. George Daniel Mostow made his greatest scientific breakthrough while driving.