William Schumacher Massey (August 23, 1920[1] – June 17, 2017) was an American mathematician, known for his work in algebraic topology. The Massey product is named for him. He worked also on the formulation of spectral sequences by means of exact couples, and wrote several textbooks, including A Basic Course in Algebraic Topology (ISBN 0-387-97430-X).
William Schumacher Massey | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 20, 1920 |
| Died | June 17, 2017 (aged 96) Hamden, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago Princeton University |
| Known for | Massey product Blakers–Massey theorem Exact couple |
| Spouse | Ethel H. Massey |
| Children | 3 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Topology |
| Institutions | Brown University Yale University |
| Thesis | Classification of mappings of an (n + 1)-dimensional space into an n-sphere (1948) |
| Doctoral advisor | Norman Steenrod |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
Life
editWilliam Massey was born in Granville, Illinois, in 1920, the son of Robert and Alma Massey, and grew up in Peoria. He was an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. After serving as a meteorologist aboard aircraft carriers in the United States Navy for 4 years during World War II, he received a Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1949.[2] His dissertation, entitled Classification of mappings of an -dimensional space into an n-sphere, was written under the direction of Norman Steenrod. He spent two additional years at Princeton as a post-doctoral research assistant.[3] He then taught for ten years on the faculty of Brown University. In 1958 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[4] From 1960 till his retirement he was a professor at Yale University. He died on June 17, 2017, in Hamden, Connecticut. He had 23 PhD students, including Donald Kahn, Larry Smith, and Robert Greenblatt.
Selected works
edit- Algebraic topology: an introduction. NY: Harcourt, Brace & World. 1967; xix+261 pp.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) 4th corrected printing. 1977. - Homology and cohomology theory. Monographs and Textbooks in Pure and Applied Mathematics. Vol. 46. New York: Marcel Dekker. 1978; xiv+412 pp.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[5] - Singular homology theory. Graduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer-Verlag. 1980; xii+265 pp.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[6] - A basic course in algebraic topology. Springer. 1991. ISBN 9780387974309. 3rd corrected printing. 1997.
- Massey, William S. (1952). "Exact couples in algebraic topology. I, II". Annals of Mathematics. Second Series. 56: 363–396. doi:10.2307/1969805. JSTOR 1969805. MR 0052770.
See also
editExternal links
editReferences
edit- ^ Massey, William S. "Indiana, Marriages, 1811–195". familysearch.org. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
- ^ "William Massey obituary". New Haven Register. June 20, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
- ^ William S. Massey at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ "In Memoriam: William S. Massey, 1920–2017". math.yale.edu. Department of Mathematics, Yale University. June 30, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
- ^ Ewing, John H. (1979). "Review: Homology and cohomology theory by W. S. Massey" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series. 1 (6): 985–989. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1979-14707-4.
- ^ Vick, James W. (1981). "Review: Singular homology theory by W. S. Massey" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series. 4 (2): 229–233. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1981-14892-8.