Hans Samelson

Hans Samelson ( born March 3, 1916 in Strasbourg, † September 22, 2005 in Palo Alto ) was an American mathematician.

Samelson grew up in Breslau where he started his math studies, among others, Johann Radon. In 1936 he fled because one parent was Jewish, from Nazi Germany to Switzerland. There he continued his studies and received his PhD in 1940 at Heinz Hopf at ETH Zurich ( contributions to the topology of the group manifolds ). In 1941 he went to the Institute for Advanced Study and thereafter remained in the United States. From 1942 he was at the University of Wyoming, from 1943 at Syracuse University, and from 1946 at the University of Michigan. In 1960 he became a professor at Stanford University, where he was Chairman from 1979 to 1982 the mathematics department. In 1986, he went into retirement.

Samelson dealt with topology, Lie groups (about which he wrote a textbook ), and differential geometry.

For his teaching, he received the 1977 Distinguished Service Award from Stanford University.

He was married twice and had two sons. His brother Klaus Samelson was also a mathematician and computer science pioneer.

Writings

• Notes on Lie Algebras, New York, Van Nostrand, 1969 ( PDF, 2.5 MB), 2nd edition Springer 1990 ( Universitext )
• An introduction to linear algebra, Wiley 1974
• With R. Bott: Applications of the theory of Morse to symmetric spaces. Amer. J. Math 80 (1958), 964-1029. ( Homology of the loop space of compact Lie groups )
• With D. Montgomery: Transformation groups of spheres. Ann. of Math ( 2) 44 (1943 ), 454-470.