Robert Connelly

Robert Connelly ( born July 15, 1942 in Pennsylvania) is an American mathematician who deals with discrete geometry and combinatorics.

Connelly studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology ( Bachelor's degree 1964) and earned his doctorate under James M. Kister at the University of Michigan, 1969 ( Close unknotting embeddings of polyhedra in codimension Greater Than Three). Since 1969 he is a professor at Cornell University. He has been a visiting scientist at the IHES, Syracuse University, Budapest, Dijon, Montreal, Bielefeld ( as a recipient of a Humboldt Research Award ), the University of Calgary, the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Cambridge.

Connelly was 1977, the first example of a flexible polyhedral which can be converted without self-intersection to a second shape, wherein the side surfaces remain rigid. According to Cauchy such a polyhedron has non- convex. Examples with self-intersection were known before ( octahedron by Raoul Bricard 1897). Connelly's flexible polyhedron had 18 triangle sides, later simpler flexible polyhedra have been found (for example, by Klaus Steffen ). In the transformation of each flexible polyhedron volume is maintained. This sentence ( Bellows conjecture ) proved Connelly 1997 IK Sabitov and Anke Walz.

Connelly dissolved in 2003 together with Erik Demaine, and Günter Rote the Carpenter 's Rule Problem ( German: folding problem). It is asked whether it is always possible to develop a crossing-free rigid polygonal chain continuously to a straight path. In this movement all routes must get its length and any routes it can intersect. Connelly, Demaine and Rote answered this question in the affirmative.

In addition, Connelly dealt with the geometry of Buckminster Fuller's tensegrity structures.

2012 Connelly was a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

The asteroid ( 4816 ) Connelly was named after him.

Writings

  • A flexible sphere, Mathematical Intelligencer, Volume 1, 1978, p 130-131
  • The Rigidity of Polyhedral Surfaces, Mathematics Magazine, Volume 52, 1979, pp. 275-283
  • Rigidity, in Handbook of Convex Geometry, Volume A, North -Holland, Amsterdam, 1993, pp. 223-271
  • Generic global rigidity, Discrete Comput. Geom, Volume 33, 2005, pp. 549-563
Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques Humboldt Prize (4816) Connelly Digital Object Identifier
686538
de