W. B. R. Lickorish | |
|---|---|
 Lickorish in 1974 | |
| Born | 19 February 1938 (1938-02-19) (age 87) |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Known for | Lickorish twist theorem Lickorish–Wallace theorem Dehn–Lickorish theorem HOMFLY polynomial |
| Awards | Chauvenet Prize (1991) Senior Whitehead Prize (1991) Carl B. Allendoerfer Award (1989) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematician |
| Doctoral advisor | Erik Christopher Zeeman |
| Doctoral students | Marc Lackenby |
William Bernard Raymond Lickorish (born 19 February 1938) is amathematician. He isemeritus professor ofgeometric topology in theDepartment of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics,University of Cambridge, and also an emeritus fellow ofPembroke College, Cambridge. His research interests includetopology andknot theory. He was one of the discoverers of theHOMFLY polynomial invariant of links, and proved theLickorish-Wallace theorem which states that all closed orientable 3-manifolds can be obtained byDehn surgery on a link.
Lickorish received hisPh.D. from Cambridge in 1964; his thesis was written under the supervision ofChristopher Zeeman.[1]
In 1991, Lickorish received theSenior Whitehead Prize from theLondon Mathematical Society.[2] Lickorish andKenneth Millett won the 1991Chauvenet Prize for their paper "The New Polynomial Invariants of Knots and Links".[3]Lickorish was included in the 2019 class of fellows of theAmerican Mathematical Society "for contributions to knot theory and low-dimensional topology".[4]
