Jim Stasheff

James Dillon Stasheff, called Jim Stasheff, ( born January 15, 1936 in New York City ) is an American mathematician who deals with algebraic topology and algebra, as well as their applications in physics.

Life

Stasheff studied mathematics at the University of Michigan (Bachelor 's degree in 1956, where he studied with Edwin Moise ) and and at Princeton University, among others, John Milnor, in which he co-wrote 1957 lecture notes for his course Characteristic Classes, initially in mimeographed form 1974 revised book form published with Stasheff as co -author. In 1961 he received his doctorate ( D.Phil ) at the University of Oxford, where he was at JHC Whitehead and Ioan James (the latter was the supervisor of his dissertation ), and later in the same year again in Princeton ( Ph.D.) at John Coleman Moore. In his published memoirs, he wrote on his website that this is mainly happening because his Marshall Scholarship to return to the United States financed him if he got a degree at Oxford. Theme of which is divided into two parts thus thesis was: Homotopy Associativity of H- Spaces, On Certain Problems in Homotopy Theory. 1961 to 1962 he was a Moore Instructor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1962, he was first an assistant professor and finally professor at the University of Notre Dame and in 1970 at Temple University. From 1975 he was a professor at the University of North Carolina.

In the 1960s he wrote fundamental works on higher homotopy theory and homotopy algebras. He introduced in this context algebras and Stasheff - polytopes.

In the 1980s, he turned to the applications of characteristic classes and other topological and algebraic concepts in mathematical physics, first in the algebraic structure of anomalies in quantum field theory, where he worked among others with Tom Kephart and Paolo Cotta - Ramusino. He referred to the research area as cohomological physics.

1964/65 and 1987 he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study. 1969/70 he was a Sloan Fellow and in 1968/69 Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He was also a visiting professor at Lehigh University, Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania.

He has been married since 1959 and has two children.

He was editor of the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society.

Writings

  • Milnor, Stasheff Characteristic classes, Annals of Mathematical Studies 76, Princeton University Press 1974
  • H -spaces from a homotopy point of view. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Vol 161 Springer -Verlag, Berlin-New York 1970
  • Markl, Shnider, Stasheff: Operads in algebra, topology and physics. Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, 96 American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2002. ISBN 0-8218-2134-2
  • Homotopy associativity of H -spaces, Part 1.2, Transactions AMS, Volume 108, 1963, pp. 275-292
  • A classification theorem for fiber spaces. Topology 2 1963 239-246.
  • Halperin, Stasheff: Obstructions to homotopy equivalences. Adv in Math 32 (1979 ), no 3, 233-279.
J. H. C. Whitehead John Coleman Moore C.L.E. Moore instructor
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