William Thurston
William Thurston | |
|---|---|
Thurston in 1991 | |
| Born | William Paul Thurston October 30, 1946 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Died | August 21, 2012 (aged 65) Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | New College of Florida University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Thurston's geometrization conjecture Thurston's 24 questions Thurston's theory of surfaces Milnor–Thurston kneading theory Orbifold And many other concepts (linked at See also section) |
| Awards | Fields Medal (1982) Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry (1976) Alan T. Waterman Award (1979) National Academy of Sciences (1983) Doob Prize (2005) Leroy P. Steele Prize (2012). |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Cornell University University of California, Davis Mathematical Sciences Research Institute University of California, Berkeley Princeton University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute for Advanced Study |
| Thesis | Foliations of three-manifolds which are circle bundles (1972) |
Doctoral advisor | Morris Hirsch |
Doctoral students | Danny Calegari Richard Canary Benson Farb David Gabai William Goldman Richard Kenyon Steven Kerckhoff Yair Minsky Igor Rivin Oded Schramm Richard Schwartz Jeffrey Weeks |
William Paul Thurston (October 30, 1946 – August 21, 2012) was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology and was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds.
Thurston was a professor of mathematics at Princeton University, University of California, Davis, and Cornell University. He was also a director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.