Sumner Byron Myers

Sumner Byron Myers ( born February 19, 1910 in Boston, † October 8, 1955 ) was an American mathematician who worked on differential geometry, topology and functional analysis.

Myers graduated from Harvard University in 1929 summa cum laude and was there received his doctorate in 1932 at Marston Morse ( Sufficient Conditions in the Problem of the Calculus of Variations under in n -space in parametric form General End Conditions). As a post - graduate student, he spent a year in Europe, one year instructor at Harvard and two years at the Institute for Advanced Study, before he was from 1936 at the University of Michigan, where he was temporarily Board of mathematical faculty. He died of a heart attack after a football game.

Myers dealt with the calculus of variations and topological problems of differential geometry ( differential geometry in the large ). He led by JHC Whitehead, the concept of the set of minimal points (minimal locus ) to a point on a complete Riemannian manifold and treated the two-dimensional case. With Norman Steenrod he proved in 1939 that the group of isometries of a compact Riemannian manifold a Lie group (see set of Steenrod -Myers ). He is also known for the set of Bonnet- Myers. Later he worked on the topology of function spaces.

An annual prize for the best doctoral thesis in mathematics at the University of Michigan is named after him.

His doctoral include Leonard J. Savage and Meyer Jerison.