Christopher Zeeman

Erik Christopher Zeeman ( born February 4, 1925 in Japan ) is a British mathematician who deals with topology and the theory of dynamical systems.

Life and work

Zeeman was born in Japan, the son of a Dane from Aarhus and an Englishwoman, the parents moved with him to England but when he was only one year old. 1943 to 1947 he was an officer of the Royal Air Force. He was trained as a bomber navigator for missions over Japan, but was no longer used.

He studied at Christ 's College, Cambridge mathematics, where he received his doctorate in 1953 with Shaun Wylie ( title of his dissertation: Dihomology ). After some time in Cambridge, where he was also a year unsuccessfully tried to solve the Poincare conjecture ( succeeded but later the proof in 5 dimensions ), he was a visiting scholar at Princeton and Chicago (1954 with a Commonwealth Scholarship ). In 1955 he became a lecturer at Cambridge. 1962/63 he spent at the IHES in Paris.

In 1964 he became a founding professor of the Mathematics Department and Mathematics Research Centre of the new University of Warwick, in 1965 offering courses recorded. In this role, he was very successful. In his own words He wished to combine the close supervision of students by tutors at Cambridge and Oxford with the flexibility of U.S. universities. In addition, he succeeded through his vocations to make Warwick to an active research center of the topology. He remained until 1988 in Warwick, after which he was to 1995 principal of Hertford College, Oxford University and until 1994, " Gresham Professor of Geometry " at Gresham College in London. Initially specializing in Zeeman topology. Guest stays at Berkeley 1966/67, when Stephen Smale and at IHES with René Thom (1969 /70) - both were also on a Warwick Symposium in 1968/69 this field of research - but took him to the theory of dynamical systems in contact, especially with the catastrophe theory he soon in many different fields of application ( up to evolutionary theory, behavioral science, sociology, and the example of his " Catastrophe Machine" ) anwandte. Since then, he is known primarily as a proponent of the applications of catastrophe theory that there are at least as known made ​​his name as that of the " founder " René Thom.

In topology, he proved, among other things, that node can be resolved into spheres in 5 dimensions forever. He also proved that the causality -preserving transformations of Minkowski space are given by the inhomogeneous Lorentz group, or in other words, that the special theory of relativity follows from the causal structure.

In 1975 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Faraday Medal he received in 1988. 1986 to 1988 he was President of the London Mathematical Society (LMS ), the Senior Whitehead Prize he received in 1982 and whose first Forder lecturer he was in 1987. In 2006 he received the David Crighton medal of the LMS and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. In 1991 he was knighted. In 2005, the mathematics building at the University of Warwick was renamed in his honor building Zeeman. In 1990 he was chairman of the committee that accompanied the establishment of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematics at Cambridge.

He was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Vancouver 1974 ( Levels of structure in catastrophe theory illustrated by applications in the social and biological sciences ), 1966 in Moscow (Knots of spheres in solid tori ), 1962 ( Topology of the brain ) and 1954 ( Dihomology ).

Zeeman is known for its stimulating lectures. The to be applied to young people at the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 1978 ( Geometry and Perspective), which were also broadcast on television, were a model for similar lecture series throughout the UK. The LMS and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications even donated a " Zeeman Medal" to honor contributions to the popularization of mathematics. Among other things, he also dealt with the Antikythera mechanism.

Among his doctoral students include David Epstein, WBR Lickorish and Terry Wall.

He has been married since 1960 - his wife 's jeweler - and has three sons and two daughters. His daughter Mary Lou Zeeman is also a mathematician.

Writings

• Catastrophe theory. Selected Papers, 1972-1977. Addison -Wesley 1977.
• Bifurcation and catastrophe theory. Contemporary Bd.9 Mathematics, 1981.
• Catastrophe Theory. Scientific American, May 1976.
• Geometry and perspective. 1987 ( as a video ).
• Gyroscopes and boomerangs. Royal Institution, 1989 ( as a video ).
• Recommended geometry theorems in 3 -dimensional., 2000.
• Gears from the Greeks. Proc. Royal Institution Bd.58, 1986, p.139 (via the Antikythera mechanism).